


In A Time of War

by Lachesis_Lover



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Anxiety, F/M, Major Character Injury, Major character death - Freeform, Multi, Near Death Experiences, Other, Past Relationship(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, ect. - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2020-10-31 12:15:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20793488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lachesis_Lover/pseuds/Lachesis_Lover
Summary: In a time when your struggling with an old friend you end up falling into a portal of a different world and now they rely on you to save their kingdom. But what you didn't realize was that it would be this hard or all the hardships you would have to go through, but will you really be able to save them.





	1. Preface: I summon thee, The Legend

I where running, out of breath and stumbling tiredly through the back alleys of the town in a hurried panic. I were being pursued through the streets by a man right after you had gotten off of work. Yes I know well enough that I shouldn’t have gotten the job but when money's tight I have to do what I can to survive. Tonight I regretted those words and wish I just listened to my friend. Now I have to run from some guy that knew who I was and that was dangerous, it was my ex. But right now I am being hunted down by him through every twist and turn. I was royally fucked. I was at the mercy of his will. For me it was just a lose-lose situation. Being so lost in thought I didn't see the big burly of a man in front of me. I yelped and fell on the my ass and started to scoot back after getting a closer look at his face and just as I was about to take off in another direction I noticed that I was stuck in a dead end and I just had nowhere to go so I started to back up until my back hit a wall. When my back had hit the wall and I knew that it was over for me. I closed my eyes and waited for whatever they were going to do to me, but instead and I felt like I was falling instead before I hit the ground hard. I groan as I sit back up and rub the back of my head.

"Ow that shit hurt." I mumble under my breath. Just as I was about to stand up a voice scared me half to death.

"Oooh! You're here? Then the ritual actually worked?" Ritual, what ritual is she talking about.

"Ahem... Oh Great Hero from another world! Thou hast come so far to fulfill your role in our legend! For our kingdom now stands on the very brink of ruin and thou... And thou... Hold on! Are you really our Great Hero? You don't look like the thee - and - thou type. My panic finally started to settle in.

"What are you talking about and where am I? How did I even get here?!" After getting a good look I noticed that we seemed to be standing in a open field which seemed to be in about mid-day which makes no sense since I just left work at midnight. I was interrupted by the female once more.

"What's that? You want to know where you are? And how you got here?" I nod and she hums putting her finger on her chin. "Fair enough. You're in --" right as she was about to tell me she was cut off by a yell. 

"FOUND YOU!" a person dressed in red armor brandishing an axe yells.

"Dear! How did one of those Emblians get here already? Stand back! I'll take care of him somehow!" With those words she takes off towards the group of three with a battle cry and axe held high. She went and took him down with one fellow swoop. She stops and turns to look back at me with a smile and a thumbs up. As she did this she failed to realize that the axe fighter had got up again.

"Watch Out!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. She was able to dodge the attack and landed a more fatal attack, where she took of his head. Watching it I became queasy but swallowed back down the bile that was raising in my throat. She then turns back around and walks over to me talking loudly.

"Whew! We took care of him!" She then stops and looks at me with thought. "My name is Anna. I'm the commander of the Order of Heroes. We believe the heroes should be free. Our enemies, however, enslave them- the fiends." She turns and spreads her arms to make me look upon the great expanse around us before turning and looking back at me. "This realm has gateways to worlds where Heroes come from. Have you heard of the World of Awakening?"

"No." I reply bluntly.

"How about World of Birthright?"

"No."

"Or World of Conquest?" She ask even more confused. I shake my head.

"Well there are so many more! The Emblian Empire invades those worlds and binds Heroes to service. We fight for their freedom! That solider was from the Emblian Empire, which will soon invade our neighboring kingdom Askr." Anna's expression falls and her voice becomes more quite. "I was desperate for help. I preformed a summoning ceremony." She then looks at me and smiles. "And you just appeared out of nowhere. Lucky us!" Her happiness is contagious cause I then started to smile as well. Her face then hardens as she turns serious. "But there is no time to rest. We have to act fast if we're going to save our kingdom!" With that she turned to me and waved to follow her of across the field. I had to do a light jog to catch up with her.

"First things first. I summoned you here with a divine Breidablik. That's the name of the relic I've brought. It fires something out of it , according to legend, but Breidablik doesn't seem like any bow I've ever seen. The legend also calls it "the true key", which if raised high, will summon the Great Hero who can fire it." She turns to look at me. " That's what I did. And now you're here. So it's yours now. Hopefully you can figure out how to--" Just as we entered some ruins we got interrupted once more by another Emblian solider.

"THERE SHE IS GET HER!" he yells to the archer who nods and starts to move into position.

"Drat. More of those Emblian soldiers. I can't defeat them all by myself," She turns and gives me a once over. "And you're not equipped to help me." Her face changes from a look of distress to a hardened look of acceptance. "You run while I hold them off." I am shocked beyond comprehension. Was she really going to risk her life for the life off someone she barely knew. I couldn't leave her I would never forgive myself.

"I-I'm not leaving you." I say as my voice started to crack as I started to comprehend what that meant. She shook her head and grabbed my shoulders.

"Not up for discussion. Now take Breidablik and get out of here, Kiran!" she states. That's when everything started to move in slow motion and I felt this roaring power I've never felt before build up inside of me and then there was a blinding light flashes as I feel all of the magical power move from my body to the tool in my hand.

"What's that?! That bright light it's coming from..." She whips back around and covers her eyes just like everyone on the field at the moment. As the light slowly fades a man holding a bow and dressed in brown boots and brown pants and light blue shirt to match his hair. He then grabbed my hand and bowed and kissed my hand before looking back at me, directly in the eye.

" I am Virion, the finest archer of the fairest realms." He then stood at his full height, smiling a sweet, charming smile. "Delighted to be of service." After he had finished I felt my face grew hot and I was glad that my skin was dark so that he wouldn't know that I was even blushing. My thoughts where interrupted by Anna.

"How'd you do that?" She asked with a sparkle in her eyes. "You summoned a Hero, Summoner! You just picked up Breidablik, and you're already able to use it!

I know right!" I exclaimed. Anna then turned around and brandished her axe.

"But there's no time to talk now." She turns around and waves Virion over. "Me and this Virion need to get fighting." I nod and start to stand back so that I won't get caught in any cross fire. Anna says something that Virion nods to before taking off in the other direction. I watch Anna take out the axe fighter only to have an arrow land directly next to her seconds later. She starts to move around the field to avoid more arrows until they all had stopped and Virion came out of a bush not to far off. Soon after they were sure that it was safe.

"Good job out there guys, that was amazing." I yell out to them a little breathless as I approach.

"We won! And it's all thanks to you, Summoner!" When she says that I start to fell my face heat up again and stuttered out a response in turn.

"Why say that, you're giving me to much credit!"

"Why?," she states incredulously. "None of us in the Order of Heroes can actually summon these Heroes. Ha! I never doubted you for a second that you were the Great Hero." Somehow I felt like that was a lie but decided not to mention it. "You're the one who will save our kingdom. Our order is small, summoner, but welcome to our ranks. Please help us find more Heroes to assist us." I nodded to let he know that I agreed to help her in her mission. She smiled. "Now that you're here I know that we'll win out fight against the empire, Summoner.

Little did I know what I was getting myself into.


	2. Prologue: World of Zenith

We have been walking for awhile now and I could feel how out of shape I am. I now am regretting not going back to the gym right about now. So far Anna has been doing all the talking, basically telling Virion and me what to expect from the Order of Heroes and about the other two heroes, but I wasn't paying attention to what she was even saying about a few minutes ago. For awhile I have just been thinking and listening to little bits of the conversation in front of me. 

"Commander Anna!" yelled a man off in the distance. As He got closer I got a better look at him. He was dressed in a white shirt and pants wearing golden armor same as Anna. He was also wearing a cape and is heavily decorated. He has blue hair that is blond at the tips and had a golden crown placed upon his head.

" You're alright!" He then turns and sees me before turning back to Anna. "Wait who is this with you?" He then turns and looks at me with wide eyes and a spark of amazement in his eyes. "Could it be...?" Anna nods and he seemed to get excited but tries to play it off as if he wasn't, which confused me. But before you could question it Anna continued.

"It is Prince Alfonse! The legend is true. I raised Breidablik," she then turns and puts her arms out in my direction like I was a prize that she wants to show off. "And then Summoner appeared!" She then turns and raises her arm in the air. "Our Great Hero is here..." She then looked at me and smiled again. "And can use the divine weapon too! As for what it shoots? It's truly wonderful." There excitement is so contagious that it was making even Virion smile. "It fires Heroes right out of it!" Alfonse gasps.

"Unbelievable." He says in a breathless wonder before turning to me. " So you're out Great Hero, who has come to us from another world, Summoner." I nod to show that I was listening and the look of wonder in his eyes never dies for a second. He then bows before standing back upright.

"I am Alfonse, Prince of Askr and member of the Order of Heroes. A pleasure to meet you." I curtsy.

"I am Kiran, and the pleasure is all mine." He nods and his expression shift slightly.

"I'm sorry to ask this of you so soon after we've meet, but I need your help. Our order is devoted to fighting the Emblian Empire, which invades worlds where Heroes are from. One of these is the World of Mystery." He then turns his attention to Anna. "I have dire news. The empire has taken over that world. We need to make out way to the World of Mystery to free it!" We all nod and start getting ready to travel.

"And Commander Anna, there's one more thing. I spotted someone odd with the soldiers near here. A strange man. Not imperial solider. Nor a Hero from the World of Mystery now under their control." Anna rubs her chin.

"A strange man, you say? Did he seem allied with the Emblian Empire?"

"I don't know." He stops and thinks about it. "I've never seen him before. He wears a mask and keeps his face a secret even from even them." Just at that moment we all heard shouts and the sounds of footsteps getting closer. Alfonse then turns around with a look of a solider. "But now, we must rush into battle, soldiers approach." 

When we finally come face to face with our enemy they are across from us on two different landmasses with three bridges connecting them to our landmass. On the upper landmass there was a lancer fighter and on the biggest of the two there was an axe fighter and sword fighter all from the Emblian Empire. The were discussing who should fight who when I spoke before i could even think. 

"Anna you should get the guy on the upper landmass, Virion you should get the guy on the bridge directly across from us, and Alfonse you should get the axe fighter a little farther down the river." I state. They stare at me for a minute but they then decided that they would with a nod. With that they set off on their different ways. Once the battle was finished a man on a horse could be seen standing off in the back, farther away from us, he is dressed in clothes that are so purple that it's almost black with gold armor almost the same as Alfonse and Anna armor, he also has white hair and is wearing a golden mask. Anna then steps in front of our group standing tall and fiercely like an animal claiming it's territory.

"Who are you stranger?" She asked the question with a tone that lets you know that you have no choice but to answer it. "Alfonse, this must be the masked man you saw!" Alfonse then steps in front of Anna to address the man.

"You! Tell us-are you a solider of the Emblian Empire?" He almost growls it out but manages to keep his voice stern. "If so, then you stand on the side of evil. The empire shouldn't be entering the worlds of the Heroes-let alone conquering them!" The man scoffs.

"Oh really? And I suppose that you want us to close the gateways too? Hmpf." He then turns his horse around and starts to leave in a slow trot. "In your dreams."

"How dare you!" he calls out to the man but the man keeps going as if not hearing him in the first place. "Where are you going?" Still silence. "Get back here and answer for yourself!" And with that last shout the man disappeared off in the distance causing Alfonse to sigh. "Damn fellow. He's gone." Anna then takes the silence to explain to me what they were talking about.

"Those gateways he mentioned, Summoner… They connect our world to all those where the Heroes live. The royalty of the Askran Kingdom, like Alfonse, have the ability to open these gateways" She tells me.

"And the royalty of the Emblian Empire are able to close the gateways" He then looks back to the horizon. " Long ago, our two families worked in harmony to open and close these ways to other worlds. But then the Embla began using its power for evil, leaving all of the gates open. The empire began invading those worlds. We cannot slam the gates shut. Only they can." Anna then decides to take over from there.

"We can fight them, however. That’s why we Askrans formed the Order of Heroes-to stop the Emblians. Now, let’s hurry to the World of Mystery." Anna then turns to Alfonse with a look of worry. " Alfonse… your sister has been on a scouting mission. I fear she may be in danger." when she says that he seems to also get worried.

"Right let's get a move on then." He states and we start off across the bridge and down towards the mountains off in the distance. Once again Anna was talking with Virion and Alfonse , introducing them as I curse my past self for not working out more when my thoughts were interrupted by someone talking to me.

"How are you holding up Summoner." That person was no other than the Prince himself.

"I'm doing well, just a little winded." I huff "Don't worry about it." He frown at that but just as he was about to say something when a feminine voice cut us off.

"Commander Anna! Brother! What has taken you so long to get to the World of Mystery?" She exclaims. This girl was full of energy and guessing that she called Alfonse brother, I can infer that she is the princess. She was dressed the same as he was except wearing a skirt and had nothing to cover her thighs. Her hair was straight blond with braids going across the top of her head and pulled back into a low ponytail and her eyes are a light green that fit her fun attitude. But unlike her brother and the commander she wielded a lance. Alfonse wields a sword and a shield. Anna only wields her axe.

"Sorry, Sharena. We had to battle our way here." So Sharena is her name, that's pretty. She then turns and spots me and her mouth forms in a "O" shape before it forms a smile.

"Who's this with you? Oh my! You're holding the divine relic... and it's all aglow! Are you...the Great Hero?" She ask me and I can feel the energy beaming off of her even from standing behind the group of three in front of me. " Our group has hoped beyond hope that you might come to save us!" She exclaims and tackles me almost causing us both to fall over. Anna and Alfonse booth were quick to react and to get her off of me.

"Please, calm yourself, Sharena." He scolds her before continuing. " This is Summoner. As it turns out, the Great Hero is a talented tactician as well. We're already in good hands." He says with a genuine smile that makes me blush.

"I'm not that great as you make me seem, you're exaggerating." I manage to say without stuttering.

"But...that's amazing." She then smiles at me so brightly I fear that I'm going blind. " And, Great Hero, you're as great as I imagined. I'm going to be your number-one fan." She then smacks herself upside her head. " Oh! My manners have gone right out the window. I'm Sharena, Alfonse's darling little sister." She smirks as she watches him blush before her clears his throat and shakes his head to regain his bearing.

"All right, all right... Just tell us, what's the situation here?" He says trying to quickly switch the conversation over and it makes me smile a little at how embarrassed he is by that, it's kinda cute.

"Simply put? Absolutely dreadful. The entire empire has taken control of a Hero from the World of Mystery. She swoops through the skies, a fearsome figure, all in red." Sharena then sighs and shakes her head.

"A red flier from Mystery? It sounds like Princess Minerva. This battle will be tough. We should bring a Hero who's an archer, or perhaps..." Just as he was about to continue his statement he was cut of by a very demanding voice.

"Begone, outsiders! I am Minerva, Princess of Macedon. Now, I'll warn you once - return to your world. I am bound to serve the Emblian Empire, and the imperial princess, Veronica, has given me an order. She has commanded that I attack a kingdom near her empire. I have no time for the likes of you." She basically growls out and then scoffs at the end.

"Princess Minerva, please hear me out." he calls out to her. " My name is Prince Alfonse, of the very kingdom you plan to attack. I beg you, put down your weapons. We of Askr have no desire to battle you noble Heroes."

"I am under contract to obey Princess Veronica. There is only ONE way to release me." She then points her axe at us. " Prove you are stronger." Alfonse sighs. 

"Must we resolve this with a battle, Princess Minerva?" Anna then shouts out.

"Prince Alfonse! She has named her terms. We must fight - and win! Everyone, prepare for battle." She states which causes them to ready their weapons. With that Minerva flew back over the wall and back to her companions and to prepare for the fight. They all then turned to me and waited for my orders. 

"Okay Commander Anna and Princess I need you both make a path through that wall," I state. They nod and take off towards the wall with nods and quick okays. " Virion and Prince I need you to be ready just in case they are on the other side of the wall." They nod and just as the wall was coming down they readied their weapons in case anyone came threw the other side. When the wall was down I saw a healer on the ground and two other wyvern knights besides Minerva. One had a sword the other had a lance.

"Virion I need you to take out that healer."

"Right away Mademoiselle"

"Prince you take out Minerva, Princess you take out the one with the sword, and Commander you get the one with the lance as soon as that healer is out of the way."

"Understood" With that they all went and got in position. Virion then took out the healer and as soon as she was done the other fighters came and went to attack in a few minutes they were defeated. Minerva then gets up and steps forward to address us.

"Well done, Prince Alfonse. You have proved strong enough to break our contract with Veronica. And so, we are free once more. I give you my oath that we will not attack your kingdom." With a small smile and a nod. "Farewell." with that she gets onto her wyvern with the other two and then the healer also got on her wyvern and then they took off. All of them then turned to me and celebrated their success in freeing more heroes.

"That completes this mission, Summoner." he says with the ghost of a smile on his face.

"You're such an excellent tactician." She then smiles. "Why, I think I'm going to be very fond of you." While we were having conversation Anna had a bird land on her arm before turning back to us.

"Everyone, list up. I've just gotten a report that Emblian solders are advancing on our kingdom." She states as we all turn to listen to her. The light vibe we all had is all gone now, replaced with tension.

"What? Then all of this, here-?" The prince tries to comprehend what had just happened.

"It was just a distraction. We've left our kingdom open to attack." The princess states what we all are thinking.

"What's done is done. Now, let's make haste." She says starting back to the portal. "Back to Askr!" We all nod and make it back to the portal. Once through we moved for the first settlement that was closes to the Emblian Empire. Before we were even close we could see the smoke from fires and when we were closes enough we could hear the screams of those who lived there crying out. I watched as the commander and the prince got visibly more angrier the closer we got while the princess got more upset along with me getting more upset which was starting to lead me back to flash backs, but have no time for that now. Before I could have anymore inner turmoil I was interrupted by a voice cheering something.

"Scurry, scurry, little Heroes... Steal for me. Spread destruction. Kill all those who stand in your way. This kingdom must fail. Once it's gone, no one will oppose me. Every Hero, in every world - they'll all be mine. Every last one." She chants out in a cheerful tone. The prince then steps forward.

"We won't allow it, Princess Veronica." He roars out. "And I will personally never forget this violation of my kingdom!" She then turns to address us.

"Oh, it's you. And after I went through all that trouble to arrange your playdate." She then spots me and looks me up and down, which gives me chills. "Now, who are YOU, stranger? You have that silly relic." She rolls her eyes. "Then you must be the legendary summoner. No matter. It simply means that you must be the first to die." She then turns around and call out to a man on a horse in a sing-song voice. "Oh... Xander." He then rides over and looks until he spots me and then points his sword directly at me.

"You wish this one slain, Princess Veronica?" She nods. "As you wish." The three then stand in front of me defensively.

"No! She has Xander, one of the most powerful Heroes from the World of Conquest!" The prince calls to us. The the princess then turns around.

"Don't worry. We'll protect you, Summoner." States confidentially.

"Get ready, everyone. Let's show this rotten princess what the Order of Heroes can really do!" She calls to all of us which we all respond to. I then tell them who the will attack and how they will do it. Once all of the stranglers were out of the way I had the prince and princess attack Xander head on after awhile he couldn't handle their team attacks and admitted defeat.

"Left all alone. Again? How dull. I'll go console myself back home with a cup of tea." She then calls all of her Heroes and they all start to retreat. As that was happening we all started to regroup.

" That foolish princess is retreating with her Heroes" Anna growled with annoyance.

"The battle's won, but this didn't resolve a thing." He then looks around the destroyed town with no one left in it. " The empire will invade again soon enough." The princess then huffed and stomped her foot. 

"Stubborn girl. Why can't we just talk through this? These invasions are crazy. Honestly, that Veronica needs to grow up already. Where's her sense of diplomacy? Such a BRAT!" Anna then turns and looks at the princess with a look.

"Sharena, don't let your emotions get the best of you - not on duty. I expect you to keep a level head if you're going to serve in this order. Hostility is their way, not ours." She scolds the princess.

"Sure, sure..." She waves it off until she sees the pointed look that Anna gives her. Sh then coughs and stands a little straighter. "I mean, of course, Commander Anna."

"I'm sorry that you've been thrown into this brutal war with us, Summoner. But I'm glad you're here - an official member of the Order of Heroes!" He then give me a once over. "But first lets get you a new change of clothes, Shall we." I then took the time to look at myself and noticed I probably looked crazy with dirty, messed up clothes and hair. I then nod sheepishly and that causes them to laugh. We all chatted on the way back and before I knew it we where in the kingdoms castle town that was bustling and full of life. There where kids running around and adults bustling and getting ready to close up their shops. We then made it through the gates and thought that I was going to stop breathing. It was huge. I then made it in and the inside wasn't as impressive as the outside but still impressive. 

"I'll be showing you how to get though the castle and were you will be staying" Anna then says to me and Virion breaking me out of my thoughts. She then turns towards the other two. " I need those reports from you two sometime tomorrow, if you will." They nod.

"We will start on those right away." The prince says and then they both walk away. Anna then turns back to me and Virion and motions for me to follow her. We then walk down a few corridors that I try to memorize as we go. She then stops in front of a pair of giant double doors.

"This is the library." She then rounds a corner and the whole corridor open up to a flawless courtyard that has paths that lead of into different directions.

"This is the courtyard. " We then go through the other side and walk down and to the left and came to another set of double doors. "This is the meeting room." We nod and she then makes her way to the front entrance but then takes a turn and we enter a giant large hall. She then turns around.

"This is the great hall, this is where all the meals will be eaten." We then walked around a few more corners and saw a few more rooms. She then leads us in the other direction of when we started our tour, in the same direction of the siblings, to show us where we will be staying. She then stops at one of the front rooms and Virion then wishes us a good night before closing the door. She then leads me past a few more halls before showing me to my room which is in a hall with only four doors on it and leads me to the first one on the right. I open the door to a spacious big room with a table and couch in the more front portion of the room and a bed more off to the back side. Decorated in the royal colors and design of the castle.

"I hope you find this room to your liking." Anna then says from behind me and I jump forgetting she was there since I was so caught up in my thoughts. 

"Yes I love it thank you." She nods and then points to my bed.

"I had a maid bring you a spare nightgown. Tomorrow I will bring you some more clothes in the morning." I nod and she then steps out of my room. " Well I have reports of my own to make so have a good night, now if you will excuse me." She then closes the door and leaves me alone with my thoughts. I didn't know how tired I was until now, my body felt tired and heavy, even though I was shown where I could take a bath I honestly don't think make it back so I decided against it. With that I changed and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was sleep.


	3. Chapter 1 : Mystery Trial of the Prince of Mystery

I was running around in a clinic full of the screams of those young and old, female and male. I was covered in blood and trying to tend to at least three to for patients at once when it all got quite, all the agony and screams stopped. I paused cause that couldn't be right, that's when I heard it. It was faint but it was a whispering from one of my patients. I got closer so that I could here them.

"I'm dead and its all your fault." They whispered quietly and I threw myself away from them, that when I noticed all the patients staring at me saying the same thing. And Just kept saying the same thing over and over again. And a faint whisper in the background.

"Kiran"

"Your fault."

"Kiran"

"Your fault."

"Your fault."

"Your fault!" I then woke with a start. I was sweating and shaking I was having a panic attack. I closed my eyes and just kept telling myself it was a dream, that when I heard a knock at my door and a shout for my name. I fixed up my appearance in the mirror before rushing and opening the door. When I opened it I found the princess with a handful of clothes in her arms. She had a worried look upon her face.

"Are you alright, it sounded like you were crying and it looks like you just ran from Embla and back." She asked. I shake my head and chuckle it off.

"No I'm fine, just a little hot." I lied, I couldn't tell her the truth about my past. Not yet anyway. She nods and I can tell that even though she smiled again that she didn't believe me.

"Well I brought you some close on the request of Commander Anna." She then put the clothes in my hands and I thank her. "I'll wait here and walk with you to the great hall." She adds and I then close the door to get changed. She brought me seven pairs of blue shirts and pants, a dark brown belt and boots to match with a cloak like coat that had their royal patterns on it. After putting on the belt I notice that there was a place for me to put the Breidablik. I put it there and then put the coat on. In the coat it felt safe, like a home I never had. With that I leave the room and come out to go eat in the great hall. When we walked in I saw that Anna, the prince and Virion were already sitting down waiting for us.

"Good morning Summoner" They greeted me at almost the same time.

"Good morning, sorry to make you all wait." I then take my seat in between the prince and Virion since the princess sat next to Anna and the prince.

"Not at all, we don't mind." We then had idle conversation as we ate breakfast. After we finished the siblings decided to show me to an area of the castle that Anna had not. When the opened the ornate pair of double doors we were standing on stone with carvings in it the was glowing a soft blue with a stone tree in the middle. I could feel the magic radiating off of it. 

"This is where you can summon Heroes ." The prince states with his sister basically fizzing with excitement.

"Go on try and summon one!" She shouts to me and causes her brother to give her a look.

"Sharena--" I cut him off.

"It's fine." I state. "Let's see what I can do." I then pull out Breidablik and aim it at the stone tree in the middle of the room and I can feel something begging to be summoned. With that I pull the trigger and the area around us reacted. The soft blue got brighter and smoke started to rise as the stone tree started to sink into the platform as there was a squeaking sound. After the smoke clears there is a woman with blue hair and blue eyes and armor and holding a lance.

" I am Lucina of Ylisse. With Geirskögul in hand, I pledge my strength to you!" She states and then bow to us before standing tall and looking around the room before looking at the three of us.

"Um, if you don't mind, could you please tell me where I am." She ask as she cocks her head to the side. The prince then steps forward and explains whats happening and their predicament and if she is willing to help when the princess then walks up to me silently jumping for joy.

"That was so cool Kiran, how did you do that." I shrug.

"I'm not to sure princess." She then bust into a fit of laughter leaving me confused. "D-did I say something funny?" She then nods.

"I don't care much for honorifics, just call me Sharena." She states and I nod.

"That can be arranged, Sharena." I then continue to summon more heroes.

"The name's Matthew. I'm in the service of the young master—I mean, milord—Hector. Good to meet you."

"My name is Lyndis. Allow me to put this legendary Sacaen bow to use by assisting you."

"I'm Ike of the Greil Mercenaries. You the one hiring me? Fine. I'm ready to get to work."

"I am Frederick, a royal knight and a guiding hand in the Shepherds. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Hi! I'm Mist. But where am I? This all happened so fast! Well, I believe you'll help me get settled in, right?

"I am Ephraim of Renais, a prince and skilled spearman. So, point me at my enemy. I'll get to work.

After a few more summons and got Matthew, Lyn, Ike, Frederick, Mist, and Emphriam before Anna came into the room. She raised an eyebrow at the amount of people in the room at the moment but said nothing about it.

"Listen up, everyone. I've gotten word that the Emblian Empire has invaded the World of Mystery. They're seizing control of its Heroes in hopes of using them to mount an attack on our kingdom." She sighs "Unfortunately, they already possess one of that world's most important Heroes—Marth" There are several faces that change through out the room.

"The legendary Hero-King? If Marth leads a charge on the Askran Kingdom, it would be devastating." the prince states in an oddly calm tone the only thing giving away that he is upset is the frown that is on his face.

"Well, so what if they have a legend on their side? We have one too." She then turns and looks at me. "Our Summoner here!" That causes Anna to smile as she takes off her glasses.

"Let's go to the World of Mystery and free their Heroes from Embla's control before things get out of hand. It's going to be a tough battle." She then turns to me with a serious expression. "I hope you're ready for this, Summoner." Even though I am probably not ready, they are counting on me and I won't let them down so I nod.

~~~~~

After a while of marching we come across a man wearing all blue with a shield in hand, an older man riding on a horse, and a young woman riding on a pegasus. The man in all blue that is standing behind a pool of water speaks to us.

" I am Marth, Prince of Altea." He then looks over us one by one. " You must be with the Order of Heroes I've heard about. Princess Veronica told us about you. And I assume you know all about the contract that binds us to her? Heroes of a conquered world must obey their conqueror. But if you show us that you're more powerful than our conqueror, that will break the contract. That being said, we will battle our very best. Now, show us what you can do!" He states with confidence as he points his sword in our direction. As soon as he was done talking the man that was riding the horse started charging straight for us his lance at ready. 

"Anna!" I yelled almost out of panic at how fast he was charging.

"On it!" She then ran and parried the blow before going on to attack him. With that I saw the pegasus knight coming right our way with Marth hot on her heels.

"Lyn I need that flier out of the air." I yell over the fighting between The horsemen whose name I now know is Jagen. 

"Yes." she simply states before letting her arrow fly. As soon as it was out of her hand I heard the pegasus screech and the flier scream before being caught by Marth. who then stepped forward and challenged the prince to a fight. He then moved in and right he was about to fall he tripped the Marth and took control of the battle and by the end Anna had Jagen was in the ground, the prince had his blade at Marth's throat, and the pegasus knight, whose name is Cadea, was standing by and watching as Mist heal her horse. Marth then gave a laugh and took the hand that the prince to get up.

" Well done." He then turns and makes eye contact with me. "I expected as much from you. But our battles are far from over. The next time you see me, we will settle this once and for all." With that he walks away from us and off in the direction they were protecting. Before we rushed in right after them we took the time to heal. After we finished that we moved ahead.

~~~~~

We we finally came across Prince Marth we had done a total of four battle and I was mentally exhausted. We had fought a brute of a man named Omga, then we fought a cheerful mage named Linde and a mysterious mage named Merric, and right before coming here we fought two horsemen name Cain and Abel with their sneaky archer Gordin shooting from the underbrush that was giving me headaches and now we have to fight Marth... again.

"You've done well to make it so far. Clearly, you people are devoted to the cause of peace. In truth, that speaks to my heart. We are kindred spirits. I wish that we had met as allies. But I must abide by the contract that binds us until it is broken. Can you break it, I wonder?" That last part seemed like he was speaking more to himself than to us. "It's time to find out with an honest battle. Do your best. And I will do mine!" He shouts from over on the island that he has barracked himself on. The people on the island with him was Merric, Gordin, Cadea, and Marth himself in the middle.

"Lyn I need you to take out Merric and Gordin." I say and I immediately here her horse whinny before taking off in a flurry of dirt. I then turn to the rest of the group.

"Anna I need you to stay here and keep watch," I then turn to the siblings and wave for them to follow me. "Princess I need you to take care of Cadea and Prince I need you to take care of Marth." They both nod and take off from around me to take out their target and that's when Lyn rode up on her horse.

"Anything else you need me to do summoner." 

"Yes stay here and make sure that Cadea won't fly and try to attack me or the Commander." She nods and readys her bow. After about twenty minutes we had them all beat and on the ground.

"You have proved your power, and I am glad to say that you have broken the contract." He then looks over and watches as Mist heals the other three. "You have my gratitude for freeing us from Veronica. I hope that we will meet again someday." After they all finished they all waved and left us to be the last to leave.

"Well done, everyone. We've saved their world and our kingdom. At least for now." We all nod in agreement.

"How frightfully boring." I familiar voice calls out.

"Princess Veronica!" shouts as he whips around to face her.

"After all the trouble I went through, making Marth and those others pawns of our empire... Why did you free them?" She sighs but then smiles which sends shivers down my spine. "No matter. I have far more powerful forces at my beck and call. If I wish you dead, they will oblige. And... do I want that? Oh yes, I very much do. Now, just you wait there while I call them over.." She trails off toying with us.

"We must retreat. We don't have the strength to face her. We need to get back to our castle to regroup!" She calls out urgently and we all start to make a move to head back to the castle.

"Going so soon? And just when I was getting ready to play! I suppose I'll go home. You'd better get ready for what's coming next. Oh, the Heroes you're going to meet!" She calls out to us as we are retreating.

"When we make it back to the castle Lyn goes to put her horse up and give it a good grooming and feed it and says she will meet us at dinner. We nod and wish her a farewell. Commander Anna is the next to leave and fill out her battle reports. Once she is gone Ike comes and gets his sister and they both head for the courtyard to conversate. Virion then shows up.

"Summoner, if you don't mind, would you play a game of chess while we have tea." He ask 

"I would have to decline, I don't know how to play and I am quite tired." I smile as sweetly as I can at the moment.

"Oh!" the princess exclaims. "I'll play with you I have always wanted to learn to play." She then claps and they walk off to go find a table in the courtyard to play on.

"Where will you be heading Summoner." the prince then ask me. I then turn to him.

"I probably will go summon some more Heroes since Princess Veronica has a large amount so we will need more troops." I state as I start making more plans. "Then I will go to the library and study up on tactics for battle so that I can improve.

"Then I will accompany you." He says. I smile.

"That is very nice of you thank you." I say and we then walk back to the room that I was in this morning. We then walk in a comfortable silence for awhile until I notice how tense he is.

"Prince," I start. "Are you alright?" He turns to look at me with a quizzical look.

"Whatever do you mean?" I hesitate for a moment before continuing.

"It's just you seem very tense to me." He tense even more at the statement.

"No it's nothing of your concern." He states in a neutral tone. His face doesn't change so I don't know if I offended him so I just go ahead and apologize anyhow.

"I apologize, that was quite insensitive of me." He seems to be slightly surprised by my sudden change in attitude. he then shakes his head.

"No, not at all you were worried is all." He then gives me a smile but I know it's not genuine. We then walk the rest of the way to the summoning room. Once there the prince stood off to the side.

I once again stand in front of the stone tree, I breath in and breath out then I pulled the trigger. Smoke lifted and the tree sank into the ground with it's usual sinking sound.

"My name is Jakob. I am a Nohrian butler, loyal to my liege, Corrin I offer you my service, if not my devotion."

"I'm Nino, a member of the Black Fang! Oh, well...I guess these days I'm just a regular ol' mage. 

"I'm Hector, from a realm called Ostia. But I'm not its ruler. My brother, Uther, is marquess at the moment."

I summoned Jakob, Nino, and Hector before it was time to go to the great hall to eat. Jakob volunteers to go help and says that he isn't very good at fighting but will do his best to be useful around the castle. After we all finish dinner Anna took the new recruits for a tour of the castle and the siblings left to go write their reports for the day, which left me all alone to my own things. I decided to stop by the hot springs and then I headed to bed. Once I changed I decided to go ahead and read a little and eventually fell asleep.


	4. Conquest Trial of the Conquest Prince

I was woken out of my sleep abruptly by the sound of knocking and the shouts of my name. I look out the window that is in my room and see that it's still dark out, whatever they are waking me up for must be important. I rush to the door and open it to come face to face with the prince, who looks a bit flushed and flustered, but nonetheless dressed in his battle attire. He then turns his head away so fast I felt like I had whiplash and started to turn a little red. 

"W-we need t-to head out so we can intercept the emblians later today." He then clears his throat and continues to look the other way. I may be tired but I can see the shift in his mood.

"Um, Prince are you alright you look a little flush." I state rubbing my eyes and yawning a little. "Your not sick are you." He shakes his head. And then say something that I didn't quite catch since he said it mostly under his breath.

"Sorry I didn't catch that." He then clears his throat and looks just above my head and says it.

"Y-your shirt, it's um its..." That's when I look down and see that my chest is basically hanging out of my shirt. I let out a squeak and then fixed my shirt so that it was on correctly. I now couldn't look him in the eye and he couldn't look in mine either.

"Thank you for letting me know." I say shyly as I start to feel my face heat up.

"Don't worry about it." He states, then clears his throat again. "I will leave you to finish getting dressed then. I nod. He then bows and I close the door. As soon as I am sure he is gone i have a meltdown. He saw my chest because of my fucking crazy ass sleeping habits, curse my restless sleep. After finishing my melt down I rush to get dressed and do my hair. About fifthteen minutes later and I finally made my way out to the front of the our ragtag group of heroes and straightened myself out.

"Glad you could make it summoner, let's go ahead and head out." There was a collective cheer of shouts as we made our way out of the castle

~~~~~

When we walk up to a split path I see three people of to the side. Two females one on a wyvren the other on a horse, one male who is also on a horse. Then there is another path with one male on a horse who looks familiar and I can't remember why. Until he starts talking.

" So, you have come to battle us?" Xander's voice booms over the battle field. "This will be the second time you face my blade. We are all bound by a contract with Princess Veronica. And yet I am also bound in another way—by the deep loneliness I see in her eyes. She remains me of one of my siblings who was once held captive in a joyless fortress. Perhaps you can understand why I could never oppose her. Or perhaps you cannot. Either way, it's time that my family and I put an end to you.Camilla, Leo, and Elise—we battle now!" He then points his sword toward us. I then turn and start to give out orders. 

"Lyn and Virion I need you to keep Elise at bay." They nod before Lyn helps Virion onto her horse before taking off to get into position. 

"On it!" she shouts as she shoulders her axe and starts in that direction. I then turn to the siblings.

"Which one of you has faster reflexes and higher defense against magic?" I ask. The prince steps forward.

"That would be me." I nod and point towards the closest bridge.

"Then you will take care of Leo," I then turn toward Sharena. "And you will get Xander."

"Anything for you, our dear summoner." She says before running off to confront Xander, The prince lagged behind for a second before also going after his target. The battle went as smooth as I thought as soon as we had Princess Elise held captive by the two that would keep the other three at bay and as soon as Prince Alfonse had knocked Prince Leo off of his horse and I could tell that he wasn't in the least fit. Seeing as their younger siblings had already lost Camilla and Xander both stop.

"We know when we have lost." He states. "You have more talent than I thought. But now my family and I know what you can do. You will never survive the battles next to come—each of us, with our loyal retainers at our side!" He boldly states before turning and leaves with his family close behind. we take a moment to get everything together and to heal those who took some damage. I had a feeling that this was about to be a long and annoying battle.

~~~~~

We finally made it all the way to where Xander is and I would be lying if I said that I wasn't mentally exhausted, but to survive I will keep having to come up with these tactics. They fought Elise and her two retainers Arthur and Effie, then it was Leo and his two retainers Odin and Niles, then we fought Camilla and her two retainers Berkuta and Selena. Now all we have to fight is Xander and his two retainers Peri and Laslow.

" How intriguing. You managed to battle your way to me. Princess Veronica said that the Order of Heroes had the advantage of a legendary hero. Clearly, this is true. Still, we'll put a stop to you now. Laslow? Peri? Let's show them that we will not fall to their force."

"Anna you get Peri, Sharena on Xander, and Prince take out Laslow and the axe unit." They all nod and take off. "Virion watch the Prince's back and Lyn take Mist and protect her while she heals them alright. After that it was a matter of time before we had won again. After shouting out commands and them getting roughed up and all, we are all exhausted.

"You fought well. I admit defeat. This means that the contract that binds us is now broken. Those of my world are no longer compelled to fight you—or to invade the Askran Kingdom. But I choose to stay at the side of Princess Veronica." He then turns away to leave but then stops and look back over his shoulder. "Next time we meet, I will defeat you." And with that he left. We then started to patch up those who were hurt before we started to move along. We walked in silence for awhile before Anna broke it.

" How can a Hero like Xander choose to stay loyal to Veronica and the Emblian Empire?" She says exasperated.

" There are Heroes who help the people of our world by their own free will. There is something about you that wins over Heroes very quickly, Summoner. But it's highly unusual and happens only rarely." Alfonse the speaks up as well.

"Two of my best friends are Heroes! That's why they stay with us. I only wish I had more friends like them." Alfonse finally stops and turns around to look at his sister, his expression dead serious.

"I've told you before, Sharena. Heroes are not friends. Only our allies. Don't get close to them." Sharena didn't like that response cause her face turned up and she then huffed with anger.

"Oh, you. Don't be prickly. You think that only because you were once very close to a Hero. And THAT one left to go home." As soon as she said that the Prince tensed and the air became heavy with unsaid tension. By this point all the heroes had stopped moving and were shifting uncomfortably.

"Enough, Sharena." He states calmly and with an air of authority. She then ignores his plead and keeps going.

"Well, am I right or not?" Before it could continue Anna stepped in.

" Let's speak of it no more. We should make our way back to the castle." She then looks at the both of them before continuing. "Surely there's another mission that we need to prepare for." With that we started back for the castle and we all walked in silence as the siblings simmered in their anger and we all suffered through some more tension. It was barely mid-day and I was already ready for bed.

~~~~~

We eventually made it back to the castle. When we entered everyone dispersed pretty quickly since it was still pretty tense when we got back. It had gotten a little better since they talked to some people but it still was uncomfortable. The prince immediately disappeared as soon as we got back and Sharena had went to hang with some of the heroes in the great hall. While Mist and Virion made there way out to the courtyard, Mist looking for her brother and Virion to go play some chest. Anna then went to probably fill out a report and I didn't feel like particularly going to sleep and not in the mood to summon heroes I decided to go to the library since I wanted to be alone in silence and to see what was in there. I walked in and started to hum silently to my self since I was sure that no one was around and opted to just sing softly.

" Cause I don't care when I'm with my baby, yeah"

I then pick up a few books on the history of Askr and Embla.

"All the bad things disappear,

And you're making me feel like somebody."

I then picked up a few tactics books so that I can get better.

"I can deal with the bad nights

When I'm with my baby, yeah"

I then stop for a moment to read over some other books deciding to take a few to read in my free time.

"Cause I don't care, as long as you hold me near

You can take me anywhere."

Realizing I can't carry anymore books I turn to go to a table.

"And you're... Ahhhhh"

I scream out, for as soon as I turn around to see the Prince standing there and it scared the shit out of me, which caused me to drop all the books I had been caring. My screaming had caused the prince to scream and he jumped back.

"Sorry I just heard you singing and wanted to know who it was." He says a quickly as possible.

"It's fine," i then go to start picking up my books off the floor. "I just wasn't expecting to just see you standing there." i hesitate a little. "And I don't like singing for other people." He then also gets on the floor and helps me clean up the books.

"Here let me," He starts and to help me pick up the books and then starts putting some on the stack when he ask me a question I didn't expect him to ask me. "Why don;t you like singing for people?"

"It's- I-I don't think that I can sing well." Up until this point I haven't looked at the prince for the whole time we have been picking up these books, when I see his hand freeze and I look up. He was staring back at me.

"I think that your singing was beautiful." He then picks up one of the history books I had grabbed.

"Is there something you wanted to know about this world." He asks me.

"I thought since I'm fighting to protect this world that I should at least know more about it so I was going to study." He nods and then helps me carry them to a table.

"Well I was going to do some studying as well so I will sit here just in case you have any questions, is that alright?" I nod.

"That is fine with me." He smiles and then goes off and comes back with five books and sits down and starts reading. I then open the book and then remembered that I don't have my reading glasses so I can't read very well. I end up with the book very close to my face to read it before the prince comments on it.

"Um, summoner is everything alright, why are you reading like that?" I set the book down and kinda laugh. 

"I can't see well when reading when I don't have my reading glasses." I state sand he then hums and then looks off and seems to get lost in thought. He then gets up and turns to me once more.

"Follow me." So I do and we both leave the books in the library and leave the castle and go into town and start walking through the booths and shops. Most people seem very happy to see the prince walk through town and wave at them and he waves back, even smiling at them even if it isn't genuine. I can tell how much this kingdom love the royal family and that warms my heart. We then come to a stop next to a shop that is on the edge of a pier. The prince then hold the door open for me and I give a soft thank you out of habit and he follows in after me. The shop is decorated in an antique/rustic theme. 

"Mr. Ito, are you there." He calls out to the back of the shop. After a few minutes a man wearing glasses who is short and a little chunky waddles up to the counter.

"Hellos you highness how can I help you today." He says with a sweet smile on his face.

"Can you get my friend here some glasses to help her read." He then points to me and the man leans over to get a look at me.

"You must be the summoner that everyone has been talking about." He says which gives me pause.

"How did you know about me I haven't really come out of the castle?" I ask. He then laughs a little and then waves for me to follow him.

"The soldiers of castle speak fondly of you and it has given all of us hope since we know that this war wasn't going very well." He then sits me down on a stool across from some letter on the wall.

"Look through this glass for me." I do and I can see the letters clearer. "Can you ready the letter now." I nod and he then walks into a closet type of room and comes back out with a pair of glasses.

"We know you will end this war for us summoner, and we thank you." He then walks me back out to where the prince is waiting and he hands him some money for the glasses and we walk out of the store.

"We will get you some money very soon so you get you some more essentials." I nod showing that I was listening. Once we make it back to the castle a maid told us that dinner was ready.

"You go on ahead, I'll clean up the books in the library." I say to the prince.

"Are you sure, I could help y-" I cut him off with a smile and shake my head.

"There's some books I need to get anyway to take to my room, and I'll change before coming to eat anyway so i'll see you there." He seems hesitant at first but then agrees and wishes me a farewell til we meet again. It doesn't take long for me to finish and make my way to my room. I set the book on the table I have at the front of the room before changing my shoes for a more comfortable pair with more cushion. 

When I walk into the great hall, all of the leaders for the order are at their table and Lyn, Nino and Mist are sitting at a table by themselves while Lyn is laughing and Mist is blushing while Nino just looked confused. Hector and Emphraim were arguing about something and causing a ruckus as Matthew ate and seemed to be amused by it all with Ike who seemed to just ignore them all. Frederick sat at a table with Virion who seemed to be getting on his nerves but didn't say anything to him and Jakob was probably still in the kitchen. I walk over and sit with the Trio of heroes. 

"Hmm where have you been Kiran." Anna questions while putting her finger on her chin.

"I was putting up some books that I planned to look at later tonight if I get the chance." I state neutrally.

"Hmm, that can't be all since I couldn't find you in the castle until a guard stated that out had left with our lovey prince Alfonse here." She says with a smirk. And I watch as Sharena also hears and smirks as well.

"Aww did you guys go on a date that's so cute." She exclaims and her brother simply glares daggers at her. If looks could kill.

"It was not of that sense Sharena I simply took her to get some glasses since she can't read without any." He spits out. "I for one will not be making the heroes friends like you are doing Sharena." I know I shouldn't take it personally but that hurts my feelings all the still. The maid comes with my food and I thank her.

"What the prince has said is true, in my world I need glasses to read books." I then get up and push my chair in. "Now if you will excuse me I have much to do and finish tonight so I will be eating in my room." I then pick up my tray and leave the hall. On my way out I hear hushed hissing coming from the table. Once in my room I sat down pulled out the map that I had got from the library on the way out and spread it but it kept closing. Mental note to by weights so that I can keep it open. I had got some paper and open up one of the books and got right to work.

~~~~~

Its been about two hours before I heard a knock on my door. I had only ate half of my food before it had got cold and I forgot about it since I was so caught up in my work, a bad habit of mine. I open the door to the prince outside of my door.

"I came to apologize for my behavior early at dinner, that was very rude of me." He then bows.

"No it's fine, I just didn't want to be the reason you and your sister started fighting again." I simple put it before continuing. "And I can tell how much you don't like socializing with anyone that isn't of this world and I can respect that so I will keep my distant if that is what you wish." I see something in his face change.

"No that is not my wish at all and I am sorry if I came off that way," He pauses to think for a moment, " I just don't trust those I first meet, I'm sorry." I shake my head and take off my glasses.

"Don't apologize, it's fine." He smiles and it's a genuine smile this time which makes mine wider. He then notices that I am still working on plans.

"Don't over work yourself and please get some rest soon." He says with a seriousness that startles me a bit.

"Yes of course, I'll be heading to bed now to put your mind to rest." I answer, and he smiles. " As long as you do the same." He nods.

"Sure thing summoner." And turns to start to walk away.

"One more thing," I call after him and he turns back to me.

"Yes what is it." He quirks up a brow.

"Call me Kiran." He nods, then faces me fully.

"As long as you call me Alfonse" He replies back. " Wouldn't be fair that I call you by your name, but you don't call me by mine now would it." I smile and nod as well.

"Of course, Alfonse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a happy Halloween!!!


	5. Chapter 4: Binding Trial from the Binding Nobles

I woke up groggy with my back hurting and my glasses falling off of my face. The candle had burnt out and is nothing more that a pile of wax. I take my glasses off and rub my face. I feel exhausted. It's been a few days now since Embla has attacked or any report of seeing any activity and I'm stressing just in case they have a surprise attack planed for us. I walk over to a mirror after setting my table straight. Seeing myself it looks like I feel down a hill and got dropped off of a cliff. I fixed my hair and patted it down and did a loose braid before taking my glasses off and and putting them on top of my notes I took last night and started to head on out to the great hall for breakfast. I walk in to Jakob scolding Hector and Emphraim and also Matthew as well. Ike was at the table with Mist and they seemed to be having a good conversation, while Nino and Lyn conversed about something before Virion sat down to join them. Frederick seemed to be watching the others conversate. I was on my way to speak with him but then we made I contact and he seemed to tell me that he would prefer to eat alone with his eyes so I went to sit at the trios table only Anna was missing.

"Good morning, um... where Commander." I ask as I sit down and Jakob then puts down a platter with my breakfast on it which I say a quite thank you to.

"Good morning, I believe that she is finishing some reports she didn't get done yesterday." Alfonse answers as he finished some of his food.

"Yes so she will be eating in her office this morning." Sharena adds before she looks at me. "I also see that you summoned some more heroes without me." She half whines. "Would you do some summons this morning so I can see." I nod.

"Just let me finish my food and we can go." I can that she is hiding how excited she is about this.

~~~~~

After breakfast me and the siblings made our way down to the summoning room to summon some more heroes. A soon as I stepped into the room I could feel the power flowing through me. I pick up Breidablik and aim it at the stone tree. I breath in, breath out and pull the trigger. The telltale sign of the summoning happening is the smoke that rises from the floor into the air and the sound of the stone sinking into the floor. Waiting til the smoke clears to see what hero I summoned.

"I am Princess Caeda of Talys. I'm also a pegasus knight, though perhaps an unconventional one."

"I am Minerva, Princess of Macedon. I will never hesitate in my duty. Ask—and it will be done."

"You call Athena? We are warrior, not little child to come running. Still, you are nice. We stay."

"I'm Boey, a mage. I usually try to avoid problematic situations. You called me here, so...so much for that."

"I'm Niles from the Kingdom of Nohr. Former outlaw. Current disgrace. My arrows are yours."

"My name is Felicia. I'm one of the very best maids from the Kingdom of—! Whoa! Sorry. Dropped my tea tray"

"Hmm. My name? I am the mage Soren. Now, I have a question for you. Is Ike here?" 

After summoning and answering any questions they had Sharena then took them on a tour of the castle with her brother to keep her under control, I decided to head back to the commons area. I then ran into a bird that had almost ran into me face first and then landed on a stick.

"Well who are you young thing." I ask as I rub under it's chin.

"That's Feh." I hear the commanders voice say behind me. "And I'm surprised that she is letting you even touch her." So it's a she, huh.

"My old job, before I was brought here, had a lot to do with animals." I answer her. She hums before calling me over.

"It's time that I start showing you were you will be working." She then takes me down the hall to where her office is but instead of turning down that hallway she turns the other way and opens the doors.

"This will be your office and your money for this month is on your desk, buy what you like." I nod and she then explains what I need done every day in the office and shifts that we will be assigning to the heroes and the leaders of the Order together and when shifts will be done. After explaining how these things work she leaves me to my own devices.

~~~~~

Later while I was in my office setting up some decor Sharena had came in with Feh on her head in a burst of energy. 

"I see that you are adjusting very well to having your office I see." She says basically bouncing on her heels. I nod.

"I would like to make it as comfortable as possible since I am going to be here majority of the time." I say while moving a plant I had bought from the market a little earlier. As soon as it was in place I then turned to face Sharena once more.

"Well how does it look." I ask her while looking at my office myself. She nods. 

"I like it cause it is very green and one with nature, it's nice." She says. I smile.

"Good I was going for natural relaxation type look, glad I got that." I say proud of the feedback. Just at that moment Anna came in with paper work in her hand a little breathless.

"We need to assemble the troops we have spotted some more of Embla's troops." She does, Me and Sharena both nod before heading out to get ready.

~~~~~

We all come to a halt in front of another group of Heroes under Embla's contract.

"You must be Prince Alfonse of the Askran Kingdom. Pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm Roy. I know I look young, but I'm leading the forces of Pherae on my father's behalf." He then huffs a bit. "I know that it's not very noble to point my blade at other fine members of royalty. But I'm afraid that we're all bound by contract. I hope you'll forgive me for what we must now do." He then sends off the other Embla troops that are with him. I send Lyn after the bowmen, Sharena and Anna both went for the other two soldiers together, and Alfonse went after Roy himself. The Embla soldiers were very easy to take out, but Roy had a lot of sword skills for someone so young. After I had Mist heal Lyn since she took a hit from the arrows to keep them from attacking Anna or Sharena I had her saddle up with Lyn and had her heal and then Lyn would ride her out of there. Eventually Roy had ran out of stamina and the battle was over. He gave a hearty laugh as he took Alfonse hand to get up.

"Your group is as strong as they say! But our contract is not yet broken. And so, I will see you again." After that he and his troops feel back.

~~~~~

By the time that we made it to Roy again we had gone through a color group of people. A noble woman who is a healer on a horse along with a general with green hair on a horse, a childish dragon, a green haired mage, and a purple haired mage, a hulking axe men, a chipper blue haired pegasus knight, with a traditional swordswoman, which leads up to the battle we are about to have now.

"My friends, Prince Alfonse and his group have arrived. We must do our best to defeat them! How odd, that we can only be free of our contract if we fail to do so. Still, I will bring the full force of my sword. And you. Lilina must unleash your fiercest flames!" He yells out to there party before turning to face us." Other than Lilina I notice an armor unit a ways back, but I will worry about her when she makes her way over here. I send Sharena after Liliana and Anna after the armored knight and had Alfonse go after Roy. After a few back and forth attacks and some healing we had won but just barely.

"You've more than proven that your power is superior to ours. Well done, Prince Alfonse." He then turns to face me. "But I believe that I should give most of the credit to your talented tactician, Kiran!" He then starts to talk to all of us. "Now, farewell. May we all battle on the same side one day." He smiles. "Until we meet again Order of Heroes." They then made their way back through the portal back to the world they belongs. We start heading back and then we start having conversation. About halfway on our way home when Anna turned to us.

"Excellent job, everyone. We have released the World of Binding from Veronica's contract" She says with a smile and clapping her hands.

"That was our toughest battle yet." he then and turns to look at me. "How are you holding up, Summoner?" before I can answer Sharena cuts me off.

"You seem pretty calm to me." She exclaims before fanning herself. "Why, I'm boiling over! But that's probably just all this heat."

"Every world has such different terrain than our own. Trees, ruins, lava... Tactician!" Anna shouts as she turns to me. "Have any of these worlds been like your own" I nod.

"I suppose we don't know much about your world. And how rude of us not to ask until now!"

"Not at all we have a lot of things like skyscrapers and cars." I say the first thing that comes to my mind.

"What? Your world has buildings that scrape the sky? And what do you mean by "cars"?" He says as he has one of his eyebrow quirk up into his signature questioning look. 

"They are like... the wagons here just without horses, and made of metal." I struggle to explain it to him in terms that they would understand.

"Like wagons...that run without horses...and are made of metal? Fascinating." He then mumbles under his breath as he puts his hand on his chin and gets lost in thought.

"I've never seen a gateway that goes to such a world." When she says that I got confused before I got this unsettling feeling in my stomach.

"How am I supposed to get home, if you don't mind me asking?" Trying my best not to let my apprehension show about this so that I don't worry any of them.

"Uh, what?" She then turns to me then puts her finger on her chin. "You want to know how you'll get home, then? Details, details! Besides, you're one of us now. Our home is your home. So, let's head back!" She avoided my question all together and I don't know if I should be worried or not.

~~~~~

I was on my way to the library when I was stopped by Anna.

"I need those battle reports before tomorrow morning." She states as she keeps going. I call after her letting her know that I was on my way to do them now. As soon as she was gone I went back to thinking what she said earlier and the look of worry she had on her face. I was so busy in my thoughts that I ran into somebody also walking through the castle.

"Sorry about that." I say as fast I could possible come out of my mouth. That's when I hear the person I ran into laugh.

"It's no problem at all Kiran." It was the prince just my luck. He is a very smart and can almost immediately tell when something is bothering somebody so I try to avoid him often when I'm upset to not worry him or the other heroes. We have gotten closer over the past few weeks now and usually spend time when we have finished up all of our reports or if i'm not busy with a hero he might come in and ask me some more about my homeland and what it's like. But lately I've tried to to run into him much since what Anna said has been bothering me lately.

"Kiran?" he ask look at me with slight worry. "Are you okay." 

"Yea sorry I was a little lost in thought." He still looks worried but lets it slide. "Well where you heading, I'll go with you since I wanted to ask a little more about... What did you call it again." I laugh a little to myself.

"Earth, you mean?" I say still giggling a little. As I see a small blush work it's way onto his face. So me and him sit in the library and talk til it's time for dinner. When we walk in together most of the other heroes are sitting and either eating alone or eating in small groups. Anna and Sharena both say hello though Sharena sounded more of a mumble since she had food in her mouth, to which her brother scolded her. With a soft laugh I sit down and start to eat.

"By the way Kiran," Anna catches my attention but I already had food in my mouth so I hum, and she continues. "Tomorrow will be the beginning of your week to patrol." Sh states before taking a drink from her glass. "You will do it once in the morning before breakfast, once in the afternoon before and after lunch, and once in the evening after dinner." She tells me and I nod. She then has a solider come in and whisper something to her that causes her to sigh.

"If you will excuse me there is something I must attend to." She says with small hints of annoyance in her voice. She then walks away with the solider who had came to retrieve her. Without thinking I spoke.

"What was that about?" I ask. Sharena then answers since her brother is drinking. 

"The new recruits act up quite a lot in their training, so she must be her going to show them what happens when they don't listen." She says and shake her head and then says something about how she says she feel bad for them, but 'm not to sure. With that dinner came to a close and to be honest I am exhausted so that no one has to force me to go to bed today and as soon as I got in bed I was out.


	6. The Worried Prince of Askr

I woke up this morning and got dressed to do my patrol like Anna had asked of me. After putting on my robe I headed out with the candle that I had on my table in my room. I made my way out into the darkness of dawn in the castle halls. I started outside and made my way over to the great hall and all the room to the one side of the castle and then made my way to the foyer where I would patrol the other half of the castle. I have been here for about four months now, but I have never been on this side of the castle before. Maybe it will be the same layout like this side of the castle, only one way to find out.

~~~~~

I got up and put my crown on and putting on something more breathable since I didn't have to put on my armor until later this afternoon when I would have to help Anna with the new recruits. After putting on a dark blue shirt with no sleeves and the collar had a v shape and white pants that I tucked them into a pair of brown boots I decide to put on instead of my heeled boots. Once I finished I made my way over to the great hall, on the inside I saw everyone except one for one person. Kiran was missing, I thought it was strange so as soon as I sat down I asked.

"Has anyone seen Kiran?" Sharena Just waved a hand and continued to eat. 

"They are either catching up on sleep or simply in the Library since she seems to live in there now." She says. Anna nods.

"She might have finished and asked Jakob to make her something to go knowing her." Anna then proceeded to eat and their nonchalant attitude put me at a little ease but I had this feeling that something bad had happened but put it off as the two had said.

~~~~~

It's been a few hours now and every time I went to look for the summoner I couldn't find them but didn't think much about it since I had some Lucina and Ike ask me to spar with them today. I got more worried when I came into the great hall for lunch and I still didn't see her but there was a few people missing along with some of the newer recruits. I sit at our table where the only one present was my sister.

"Where is Commander and Kiran?" I ask her as she is basically stuffing her face, which I had to hold back the urge to scold her for not acting like a princess should but knew it would fall on deaths ears. She swallowed before answering me. 

"Commander is filling some reports and I haven't seen Kiran today I believe." She says while thinking back on who she has encountered today. As soon as she said that I felt the feeling from this morning get worse and I started to think what if she left without telling us. What if she left just like...

"Brother are you alright, you look a little pale." My sister ask with a concerned look on her face. I shake my head to knock myself out of it.

"I must just still be a little overheated from the sparring earlier, I did have to work harder since I was sparring with such a talented individual like Lucina." I say hoping that she wouldn't see through my lie. She nods and then goes back to eating.

"Well then you should rest some and try not to overwork yourself today, okay." She ask me as she stops eating once more to look me in the eye. A small smile make it's way onto my face without me meaning for it to show.

"I promise." She then shows me her big, bright smile before excusing herself.

"I also have a agreed to spar with Lucina as well but we will be working on our lances," I then see her eyes light up. "Maybe she will teach me how to wield a sword."

"I could tech you that." I say feeling just a little bit of jealousy. She then turns around and shakes her head.

"Definitely not, it would be more like a lecture than a lesson." She exclaims and I sigh.

"Very well, just remember what I said." But by the time I had said it she was already gone and that caused me to sigh once again. Time to go look for the summoner.

~~~~~

I have looked everywhere in the castle that I know she would be at even places I haven't seen her visit. I've been to her room, the library, the kitchen, the great hall, the courtyard, the gardens, the meeting room, the archives, the foyer, the practice area, and even in town. By the time I came back from town it was time for dinner, but as soon as I walked in and didn't see her I got the worst feeling in my stomach since the last incident that happened in this castle. I sat down ate in silence and left as soon as I ate my food, not listening to a thing that the Commander or my sister said to me. I was walking on the other half of the castle so that I could walk without running into a hero and so that I could cool off some when I heard the sound of crying from somewhere farther down the hall. I immediately start off down the hall, after a few turns the crying became louder and it sounded pretty frantic and in distress. When I rounded the corner all the fear and anger I felt went away and was replaced with Confusion and guilt. There in front of me was... our summoner.

~~~~~

I had been walking around the castle for most of the day and I just couldn't find my way through this damned giant castle and it was starting to get to me. I have been on my feet the whole time and I'm hungry and I just didn't have the energy to go on after about what seemed like midday. So I sat in a corner and cried until I feel asleep but then I woke up because I started to feel cold so now I'm cold, tired, sore, hungry and I'm starting to think back to things that I didn't want to think about, but I have nothing more to do than sitting in the silence of this corridor. Eventually it all became to much for me to handle and I ended up crying again. I was crying so hard that I didn't here the flurry of steps coming at me until they touched me, which caused me to freak out and scream. Now that I stopped screaming and and blinked the tears out of my eyes I could see that it was the prince. As soon as I calmed down the ache I had came back tenfold and I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes.

"Sorry" I whisper before sniffling. "I-I got lost and couldn't find my way back." I shake my head knowing that he was probably laughing at me, I mean I most likely look a mess and I know he heard my voice crack at the end of my sentence I said earlier, and I know that he probably heard me sniffling. So even if he couldn't see me I know he know that I'm crying. I then laughed but it wasn't a happy one. 

"I probably sound just as ridiculous as I must look right now." I say with my voice still quaking from my shivering. That's when Alfonse took a knee in front of me causing me to look up at him from under my hood only to be surprised at how hard his expression was in the soft moonlight. His eyes where set with something that wasn't quite anger, but not determination either. 

"Don't say that about yourself, I think that you look beautiful no matter how you look." My eyes widen and I can feel my face starting to burn so I look away from him, but he continues.

"And this isn't something you should feel ridiculous about," His expression then morphs into guilt. "Since it is us that brought you here in the first place." He has this sad look that then turned into determination. He stick his hand out for me to take so that he can take my hand.

"Do you think you can stand." I nod and take his hand and he pulls me up only for my knees to lock and I fall back down before he catches me.

"Sorry." I mumble to him as I watch the pure worry come across his face.

"You're so weak," He says more to himself than to me before actually talking to me. "When's the last time you ate?" I think back and realized that I haven't eaten since lunchtime yesterday.

"Lunch yesterday." I answer his question and he seems shocked since I was at dinner yesterday, so I decided to enlighten him. "I didn't eat much off my plate yesterday." I hum. He then sighs and gets on a knee again putting one hand under my knees and the other supporting my back, before lifting me off the ground. I let out a little scream, which Alfonse laughs at, before I put my arms around his neck. When I do this we make eye contact I felt my face heat up and I think I seen a hint of blush on his face as well. His face was so close that I couldn't think clearly with how great he basically glows in the moonlight. The irrational part of me started up since when I get embarrassed that I crack jokes.

"You could take me out to eat first." I say suddenly and I watch as Alfonse smiles before he starts laughing and starts to walk back down the hall which he came from. We walk in a calm silence since we didn't have anything to talk about and his body heat is out of this world it's like nothing I have ever felt before. No amount heating blankets, hot showers, warm clothing, or siting by a fire will compare and just listing to the sound of his heart is soothing me almost to sleep. Before I could I heard and felt him come to a slow stop.

"Hey is something wrong?" I asked since he wasn't looking at me. He seemed to tense when I asked him the question and then took a deep breath.

"Before you leave will you tell us." He pauses then makes direct eye contact with me. "If not them then could you at least tell me." I could tell from the look in his eyes that he had been hurt before, by something or someone before me.

"Be at ease I won't leave without letting you know." I say with a straight face. "I have no will to leave before I finish helping bring peace to this land and the people of it." His eyes get a little wider before he closes them and smiles.

"Well then I want to thank you our Great Summoner, Kiran." I smile and my stomach growls. We both say nothing for a moment before I burst out laughing, which causes him to laughing in turn.

"Let's get you some food alright." I hum and close my eyes as we maneuver through the halls. 

"I will be doing patrols with you from now on, so that you will have someone that will know there way around the castle." I nod and hum to let him know I was listening. "We don't want another accident like this one to happen, now let's get you feed."


	7. Chapter 5: The Awakening Trial from the Awakening Prince

"You're the invaders from this so-called Order of Heroes? We've just gotten word from the Emblian soldiers that you've come here to raze our realm." He then draws his sword before pointing it at us. "I'm warning you now—no one will bring harm to the Halidom of Ylisse. Not on my watch. Now you face me and my Shepherds. Lissa! Frederick! Prepare for battle." I send Alfonse to take on Frederick since he came in head strong. The two struggled a little but held out on each other. with that I had Anna rush in as a decoy so that Lissa would use her gravity on her and it work. Soon Anna was pinned on the ground and Sharena zoomed past both Alfonse and Anna, Frederick tried to attack but Alfonse got his attention back on him. Eventually Sharena out did Chrom's hand work and put him on the ground while putting her lance at his throat. His sister and bodyguard both froze.

"Do you yield?" Sharena questioned as everyone stood stock still. Chrom didn't say anything for a long moment, then something that I didn't expect happened. He scoffed and turn to us with a strong look or determination his eyes, with a smirk on his face. He then gets up and calls his crew over which he then turns back to us.

"We will not admit defeat so easily. The rest of the Shepherds will stop you. Our bonds are strong—we will never submit to you, villains." With that him and his crew start to leave and I guess our group should head out to.

~~~~~

Most of the battle were easy up til now, except the last one we did. That female who was almost dressed the same as me just in darker colors. She had a lot of practice with her tactics. I assume she was the tactician for The Shepherds. She was hard to read at most time and put up a good fight til the end. But now we are making our way over to the cite for the last fight. When we came up to the place there was bridges about as far as the eye could see. That's when I spotted our enemy.

"You made it all this way? What a shame that people with your skills are fighting on the wrong side." He shakes his head before continuing. "But you'll get no further—not even with that talented tactician of yours. Because we have our own. Robin! Lead us to victory. The Shepherds must get these villains to reverse course!" With that that tactician starts to talk to her group about a battle strategy, so I do the same.

"Alright I know which one you guys should fight but I don't know how they will come to attack us and standing on this little plot of land isn't to our advantage." I start saying to them, but then start talking to myself more than them. I then turn to them.

"I need you to takeout Sully Anna, Sharena you need to take out both Stahl and Chrom, and Alfonse you need to take out Robin." They all say that they got it but before they can go I stop them.

"Wait," I shout to them causing them to turn around. "Be careful and keep a watchful eye on your surroundings." They all nod with new found resolve. I watched from afar as the ruthless battle went on and calling out commands for them to follow. There where a few near misses that where to close for comfort. Eventually we took them down but not without a few scratches and bruises. After getting the whole team to sit down we explained what happened and what our actual cause was.

"We go around freeing the heroes from foreign lands from the contract of Veronica to save not only just them, but the people of Zenith as well." I explain as the others got healed by Lissa. Chrom then slams his fist into his open palm.

"Oh! It seems that my eyes have suddenly opened—and that we misjudged you!" He then gets up and turns to Alfonse before taking a knee and bowing his head. "You have my gravest apologies, Prince Alfonse. All this time, we were operating under a deception. We had it upside down. The Order of Heroes came here to save us all from the Emblian Empire! I only hope you can forgive us. You have my deep gratitude for rescuing our realm." He says without look back to Alfonse. Alfonse stops cleaning his sword and walks over to Chrom and also taking a knee.

"Prince Chrom, please do not apologize, we all make mistakes and it's not like your at blame here so be at ease he says as he puts his hand on his shoulder causing him to look up at him. Chrom smiles and they both get up before doing a strong handshake.

"I hope that we meet again under better terms than these." Chrom says without breaking eye contact. Alfonse nods.

"As I." From afar I could tell that was a declaration for their new friendship. That's when I felt a tap on my shoulder and seen that it was the female tactician. She lowers her hood and sticks her hand out to me. I do the same in return and shake her hand.

"Nice to meet another female with just as much skill as I." She says with a smug look on her face. I nod.

"Though I am certainly not to your level of expertise just yet." I say looking her in the eye. "Since you know that I barely was able to win that match." I say with a straight face. This causes all of those around us to listen in on the conversation."

"You're right." She states simply but continues. "But the fact that you, didn't resort to desperate measure the whole time was pretty impressive even if you were panicking." which cause Anna to ask me a question. 

"You were panicking during the battle." She ask out of astonishment. I nod. Then turn to her with a smile before continuing.

"I was terrified, if I am being honest," I start before turning back to Robin. "I've just hid my emotions for so long that it's not hard to hide them now." I say and see that a few people around the group frown, but I chose to ignore the looks that were looking at me. Robin was the only one with a look that tells me that she has been through what I have been through before. "We should be heading out now if we want to make it back before sunset." Robin calls out and the group starts to pack up their item and get ready to hit the road once more. She turns back to all of us. "Thank you once again for helping us and stopping us from causing any more damage." I nod and that cause the previous air from what I said before had dispersed "

Thanks to you, Kiran. I can see that with every success, your confidence grows. You give orders with hesitation. The Order of Heroes is truly fortunate to have you." I shake my head.

"Now your just exaggerating." I say since I'm not used to any type of praise like this, before getting serious. "I can't take this matter lightly, these are peoples live at stake here," I turn to make eye contact with everyone of them before I continue. " And when I say I would be devastated if I where to get any of sort of serious injury because of my tactics, I mean it." Some of them are left speechless after what I said before I notice that Sharena is squinting very hard while looking at me.

"D-did I say something wrong?!?" I ask her out of worry. She laughs and shake her head.

"You know, there's something about their tactician that remains me of you, Summoner. It's like...you have the same aura or something." She then stops to think but then shakes her head. "Oh, don't worry. I'm still your number-one fan!" She shouts out as she puts me in a bear hug.

"It shouldn't surprise us that two people might seem alike, given how many worlds there are. Why, there are probably many more than two—hundreds, even!" She then starts to murmur something to herself, but if I know anything about our commander that is when she is making that face I should be worried. Sharena then releases me enough for her to turn around and wave her hand at her while shaking her head.

"Well, now you're getting carried away, Commander." She says in an exasperated tone which means she know in what direction Anna's mind was going in. Anna then turns to us and looks a little disappointed by what Sharena had said.

"Think so? Hmm. You never know." Anna then smiles and laughs. "Anyway, let's get back to Askr. We've finished our work here." She turns back to lead the group on, but then I hear the sound of a hawk screeching and its wing beating against the air. I turn and put my arm up and it lands on my arm. I take the not from its leg.

"Commander!" I call over to her. She then turns and sees the bird and the note that I am holding.

"Oh no." She then stalks over and opens the note, reading it at a hurried pace, before scrunching up the note in her hand and he facing becoming angry. 

"I've just gotten an urgent report... Embla is at the gateway that leads into the World of Mystery—again!" We all look at he with shock written on our faces. Alfonse Sighs and Sharena is doing her best to not to let her anger consume her and cause her to lose her temper.

"Veronica must be hoping to regain Marth. Won't she ever stop trying to get the Hero-King in her clutches?" Alfonse ask as he stops to think about it. "And if not him, who might she be trying to get this time?" This question causes us all to freeze and that's when Anna made up her mind.

"Alright Order, we will be changing direction." She starts before pointing in the direction of the portal we need to make our way over to. "We are heading for the World of Mystery, once more!" With that we all shout and change course. We went as far as we could before the sun set and decided to set up camp for the night. 

"Alright let's start assigning jobs shall we." Anna says while standing infront of or little party to get out attentions. Including myself their are twenty-two people around for this trip since we decided to bring all of our heroes. She was giving people jobs to do. Ike, Nino, Mist and, Virion were tasked with setting up the tents, Lyn, Boey, Soren, and Felicia went to find us some food for the night, Minerva, Cadea, and Jakob are going to scout the route for tomorrow so we know the terrain, Frederick, Emphraim, Hector, and Lucina are going to watch camp in plain site while Matthew and Niles watching from the shadows. Anna and Sharena are on cooking duty, which leaves me and the prince to get the fire wood. I could hear Commander and the princess whispering and snickering about something and I felt like it had to do with us. I was shaken out of my thoughts by Alfonse saying something to me.

"Come again," I say looking back to him before continuing. "I didn't hear you, sorry." He shakes his head.

"I was just saying we could start over there." He states as he points over and I nod. I start to move but end up running into him because he didn't move at all.

"Is something the matter." I ask and he looks at me. "I feel like those two are plotting something and I don't like it one bit." I turn to look at them as well and they just looked suspicious. 

"I agree with that." I say as we both turn and make our way for the woods. We start making our way through the woods looking for some sticks that would be suitable for a fire. While were gather some Alfonse tapped me while he had an armful of stick he was going to say something when we heard a scream and what sounded like an explosion. This made my blood ran cold.

"What was that?" I whisper being to afraid to speak in louder. Alfonse then takes my arm and drags me through the forest to the campsite. When we make way back to the camp, everyone was on guard with their weapons at ready.

"What happened." Alfonse yells out as he unsheathes his weapon, Fólkvangr. His sister runs over with her lance, Fensalir, at ready.

"We don't know but Commander Anna went to go check it out." She then turns around and yells something to the others. " She told us to stay here and watch over the camp." Alfonse then nods and turns to me.

"Stay here, I'm going to check on the Commander." Just as he was about to turn around and run into there general direction, a dirty Lyn, along with an annoyed Soren and shaking Boey and Felicia. Anna was right behind her with her axe on her shoulder and her clothes were messed up.

"Commander?" Alfonse and Sharena asked at the same time. She shook her head.

"Don't ask." She said through gritted teeth. This caused me to laugh and I just couldn't hold it back. I was laughing so hard that I had to hold my stomach that it hurt so much. This spurred a few other people to start laughing, even the commander. Mist then comes over and grabs Lyn and Anna and takes them to get healed and their clothes fixed. While we waited we fixed dinner and got the fire started. While we ate people talked about all the places they came from and the friends and family they had waiting back at home for them as we ate.

"Hey Summoner," Lyn calls out to me, so I turn and acknowledge her. "What is your world like?" I stop to think about it.

"What was my world like?" I say back as I think about it and look up at the sky. "Well where I am from you can,t see the stars in the sky because there is so much light pollution." Right now I'm just gonna compare the two and tell the the contrast.

"What's light pollution?" Sharena ask me with a mouth full of food. "Sounds horrible." She says as she shutters. I then look back down at the group, and shake my head.

"No it's not as bad as it sounds," I start. "It just means that there is so many lights that you can't see the stars unless you go out to like the country side." I see looks of relief go around the circle. Then I hear Alfonse say that's why I like to look at the stars. Then when we finish they start giving shifts, I end up on the first shift with Lyn doing the second one and whoever was next. I sat by the fire and thought back to what must be going on in my world. Did anyone notice that I went missing, and if they did do they even care. Probably not. Oh well I'm doing better here anyway. Just then I am brought back from my thoughts by the sound of a twig snapping which causes me to tense but to whoever is behind me I don't let them know that I have noticed. Just then I could feel that they were behind me, I waited a second before I turned around and threw a punch stopping it from punching this person when I realized who it was, it was Prince Alfonse. I instantly relaxed and apologized for almost punching him which must have shook him out of his daze.

"You have quick reflexes," he speaks almost in a whisper as if to conceal his awe. "I wouldn't have thought you could move so fast." I give a nervous giggle.

"You had scared me is all and I didn't know who was behind me." I then sit back down and he sits down next to me.

"Sorry I didn't mean to scare you." He says and I look over to see that he is staring into the fire. I tun my head back to look at the fire as well before shaking my head.

"No it's alright, its not like you did it on purpose." I then look up to the sky and watch the stars for a moment before thinking of something.

"What is it," I start turning my head to look at him. He cocks a brow in question so I continue. "Why are you up right now? Your shift isn't til about morning." He then looks back to the fire.

"Couldn't sleep." He states a little to fast for my liking and I know he still doesn't trust me that much so I didn't want to over step my boundaries.

"I know that you don't exactly trust me yet, but if you ever need someone to just listen to you or blow off some steam with a rant I'm here to listen to you. I say and turn to make eye contact with him. He searches my eyes for any sign of deceit, when he finds non he closes his eyes and smile.

"Thank you, Kiran." He whispers. I smile and pat his shoulder. Which causes him to look back at me. 

"Well you are going to need some rest so try and get some sleep." I say he nods and gets up and makes his way back to his tent he shares with Emphraim and Hector. Before he gets to far he turns back.  
"Good night."

"Good night."


	8. Chapter 6: Returning to The World of Mystery

When I woke up this morning I didn't expect this to happening in the least. We just finished the battle with the first group we ran into from Mystery and he came over and seemed to watch us and stalk around us like an animal would it's prey. He stopped infront of us and out of my protective nature I stepped forward next to Alfonse with Sharena and Anna on our flank. He had his hand by his sword at all times.

"You're strong, all right. It's a close call—which of you is stronger?" He then turns his head to me and Alfonse, before stepping forward and whispering in my ear. "You...or him?" As soon as he says that all the warning bells went off in my head, causing me to tense up. He steps back and smirks. "Heh. This is going to get interesting. I'm sure I'll see you around." He then turns away with a wave of his hand as he continues to laugh as he leaves. After he said that I became hyper focused. After they all seen my reaction they all started to tense.

"What did he say to you?" Sharena asked while trying to look at my face. I refused to take my eyes off of him until I was sure he was gone. I shook my head.

"Nothing of importance, just a word of advice at most." I say before I tell us to move forward. I can't help but to think about it the whole time we spend marching.

~~~~~

I was still caught up in my thoughts when a child's voice that got me back to the present.

"Ah! Are you the bad people that Veronica warned us about?" She then started to puff up like a cat that just seen an enemy that could be a threat. "Why can't you just go away? Besides, if you get any closer... I won't be able to hold back, and then...I can't help it if I do awful things to all of you." As she says that she takes out a dragon stone and starts to transform. Everyone immediately starts to get battle ready. I scan the battle field to see who all we will be fighting. There are two of the Embla soldiers and the young dragon girl whos name is Tiki, and Minerva once again. I had this strange feeling that Navarre was around, just not fighting. I started giving out orders and took off to watch the battle from a safer distance but close enough that they could hear me. After yelling my voice into exhaustion and my team running themselves raged, we finally won. Tiki then transforms back into her more human form and bounds over towards all of us, beaming.

"You beat me? Thanks to you, I'm back to my normal self! Even better—now I don't need to fight anymore!" She then jumps up and down and runs around all of us before stopping in front of me and looking at me before cocking her head at me.

"Why are you wearing that hood, you're really pretty." When she says that I start to get a little flustered before remembering that she probably wanted an answer.

"I wear it so that my enemy's can't read me and so that I don't cause moral to go down because I accidentally let my emotions slip through while coming up with plans." I state and she seems to smile.

"Well all of that is done, so why not take your hood off." I shake my head and tell her that maybe if we meet again then I will. She jumps up and down.

"Really!!" She shouts and I nod as we start to make our way back to the portal.

"See you again, and hopefully really soon." She shouts as we disappear behind the trail. As we are walking I was thinking about nothing in general until I realized how quite everyone was until I heard that they were all whispering so I pretended to not notice and just listen in. After listening for awhile a few words that sounded like face, hair, hood, and never seen and I assume that they must be talking about how I never take off the hood. The only people who have seen me without it was Sharena, Alfonse, Anna, and Virion. Everyone else got summoned after they gave me the cloak so the probably have never seen my face. After we got through the gate Anna moved in front of us and stood with her hands on her hips.

" Well done, everyone. That's one more successful mission!" She shouts this which causes all those around me to cheer. Before her face changes to one of confusion. "Seems like the Emblian Empire wasn't after Marth at all this time." 

" If only we could close the gateway to World of Mystery, then the Emblians couldn't keep going in." Alfonse says more to himself than to any of the others. Sharena then turns to me.

" You're probably asking yourself why we don't just guard the gateways, Summoner." That wasn't what I was thinking but decide better than to say that so I just nod.

"The thing is, we do. Or at least we try—but there are just too many gateways and too many Emblian soldiers. I wish that we royals of Askr had the ability to close the way to those worlds." When she says that she looks pained by how useless their efforts have been.

"The royal powers to open and close the gateways are meant to work in tandem. I wonder, if Askr could close gates, would the power to open them simply shift to Embla? Legends suggest that might be so. And if it is, then we'd be just as stuck in this predicament!" He says it with visible anger and frustration on the subject, then causing his sister to show her frustration.

"That'd be even worse." She turns to look at her brother with a look of utter horror. "Then we'd have to check ALL the gates, not just the ones we once opened." She then huffs and stomps her foot. Anna then puts her hand on both of the siblings shoulders, with her eyes closed she begins to talk.

" Veronica's war will continue until one realm has both powers or we learn to cooperate again. But for now, we are stuck, and chances are that all this was just another distraction." She then opens her eyes and looks at every one of us. "Who knows what gateway Embla has gone through while we've been here? We need to find out." She then turns and order us forward which we do, but I have this nagging feeling that something else is going to happen. That nagging feeling was right because the last person I wanted to see appeared in front of us with some of emblians soldiers that must have been sent to back him up. He scoffs and looks at me and starts to speak.

"Good? Evil? I couldn't care less what those who hire me stand for. My job is to wield this sword. Just keep one thing in mind" he then raises his sword, the tip pointed right at Alfonse. "—I don't work cheap." with that they all started to attack without saying anything. That's when I notice that every time a female went to attack them he just dodged them and moved forward until he could finally make it to his one and only target, Alfonse. That's when I got a wild idea and if I am right then it should work. Alfonse was fighting with another Embla's solider which left him wide open and Navarre was going to exploit on that mistake. So at the last second I jumped in front of Alfonse to stop Navarre from attacking him the way he wanted to, blade stopping right in front of my heart. This caused the entire battlefield to freeze. The entire field froze in either fear or sheer shock, some even had a little of both on their face.

"If you want to hurt him you will have to go through me." I say with as much power as I can put into my voice. I seen the shock morph into something that I just couldn't understand. He then lifts the blade and points it at my neck and I hold my ground.

"Do you know what you just asked for." He says as he looks me directly in my eyes. and I stare back.

"Summoner d-" But before he could finish I cut him off.

"Don't worry." I tell him before I turn back and glare at Navarre. I then step forward causing the blade to cut into my neck causing some people on our side to yells something out to me which I ignore. Alfonse then puts a hand on my shoulder and tries to tell me something but I don't let him finish.

"Alfonse, have just a little faith in me will you." With that I feel him let go of my shoulder with some hesitation, so I continue. "I will do anything to keep those of the Order and anyone who works for the Order protected even if the cost is my life. I say and stare him straight on. We hold our gazes for a moment before he breaks into a smile and lowers his blade.

"You have guts and crazy as hell, I'll give you that." He then puts away his blade before crossing his arms. "Call me Navarre. I'm a mercenary, but I don't come cheap." He then smirks and holds out his hand. I take his hand and shake it with a smile of my own.

"Don't worry won't be a problem for offering your services." I say. "We can talk about your payment but," I turn and look at the remaining of Embla's soldiers with a wide crazy smile and the look of lunatic written all over my face. "We still have to take care of them don't we." As soon as I finished they all took of running back to Embla. I start to laugh which causes them to run even faster. I was then rushed by Mist as she went to heal me which caused everyone around me to gather around me. That's when I heard Sharena.

"She's even scarier than you Commander." That's when Anna laughed and nodded her head. I also laugh and turned to them.

"I can get scarier, so don't get on my bad side." I wink at them and I see a few people in the group shudder. After she was done healing me we startled making our way back to Askr and I'm just dying to get in the bath when we get back. 

~~~~~

As soon as we got back I took my bath and was in the middle of writing my report since I was going to do this little thing then head off to bead when I got a knock at my office door.

"Come in" I say as I continue to write my report, I didn't look up until I heard a thud in the chair in front of me did I look up. "What pleasure do I owe to see you here so late this night." I say as I continue.

"Payment." He says it quite bluntly and with little patience. It causes me to laugh and I stop what I am doing giving him my full attention.

"Alright how much are we talking." He then thinks about it.

"Two handfuls worth of coins." I nod.

"Deal." He gets up and starts to head for the door. "On one condition." He then stops and turns to me.

"I will pay that much for when you work not just for you being here, you do extra work for me and I'll pay more, understood." he turns and scoffs.

"Yes you are quite understood. He then leaves for what I would assume is going to sleep. I finished up my work and left it in Anna's office before making my way to my room. 


	9. Chapter 7: World of Birthright

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead ;)

I awoke to the sound of banging at my room door, which caused me to jolt off of my bed onto the floor and groan as I had landed quite hard and was now tangled in the sheet. While I was untangling myself from the sheets I had seen that daylight hadn't even broke the early morning sky yet and it sounded like there was a ruckus going on outside the door. That's when the banging on the door happened again, but this time with more fervor. Remembering that the knocking is what woke me I made my way over to the door in a hurry to be greeted by the commander. Since I was still not in my right mind I didn't notice the stress on her face and was paying more attention to everyone moving with a passion out of the hallway towards the great hall. 

"What's happening? Why is everyone up right now?" I asked finally moving my head back towards the Anna.

"We just received news that Veronica has gotten some new recruits and that they are currently stationed in the World of Birthright." I nod before moving to close the door while telling her give me two minutes and I'll be there. While I rushed and threw on my shirt and pants while grabbing my coat on the way towards my door I realized that I just don't have time to do my hair right now, so I can do it on the march to wherever we are going and fix my appearance up some more to. When I got to the hall most of the recruits looked bout as tired or as unorganized as me, even the siblings. The only one that looked even remotely put together would have been the commander which meant that she had been up doing paper work since who knows when. 

"Great now that you are here we can get a move on!" Anna shouts just a little to loud for my liking, and a few others, but say nothing as we make our way out of the castle, with Jakob bowing and Minerva, Hector, Empharim, Cadea, and Athena waving goodbye to us, with Soren watching us as we make our way out of the gates and start to make our way out of town. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally we came up upon a chasm that had setup on the opposite side of the the chasm guarding the other side of the bridges. Straining my eyes I could make out some red and and a lot of hair. I then walked over to Alfonse and called his name to which he stopped his conversation with the commander to look back and answer me.

"Yes?" he asked 

"Sorry to interrupt," I then step into the little huddle that the two had and looked back over the chasm to only see blurry blobs since my eyes had yet to adjust some more. "but could you tell me all who is over there on the other side of the chasm." He looked at me with some confusion before looking over the chasm and back at me. 

"Can you not see clearly?!" I shake my head. He seems to have more questions but holds them back for now. "Over there seems to be Ryoma and his siblings, Takumi, Sakura, and Hinoka." I nod and start to think of a plan of attack with all those I have to work with. Taking a glance back at the units we brought back talking while I thought up a plan. Just then Anna speaks up and starts to talk to the other side causing everyone to stop and look at her as she try's to resort to peaceful matters, just then Ryoma's voice boom loud and clear from over the chasm.

"What's that, you say? My realm is being controlled by forces from another world?" He then scoffed. "Preposterous! The Kingdom of Hoshido is protected from invasion by the power of our queen. I'm not sure how you got into Hoshido, but rest assured, my family and I will make sure you leave!" With that he pulls out his sword and points it in our general direction. With that I started calling out orders.

"Sharena go with Alfonse and take out Ryoma, Alfonse take out Takumi. Virion and get on Lyn's horse and shoot at Hinoka and when she gets to close Anna you take over from there. Mathew take out Sakura when she gets close enough and Nino make sure she can't get to her siblings and heal them." With all of them taking out into different directions as I turn towards the last person who came along.

"Now Mist I need you to heal anyone that gets hurt as fast as you can, okay?" she nods before turning to take off before I called out to her. "Don't push your self to hard." She nods and takes off and I turn to watch the battle take place. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"My friends, I underestimated the power of these strangers. We must retreat and regroup. For the sake of our people, we cannot let Hoshido fall into the hands of the invaders!" With that all the siblings took off further on the other side of the chasm as I watched them head out before turning back and watching as mist healed up the minor scratches on all of the heroes.

"Mist how are you holding up?" I ask as I walk over and check out everyone to see if we are ready to go. "Think you can make it to wherever the next base is?" She nods and we set off once more. As we all are walking off I notice that the Commander and Sharena are talking to each other with what seems like blush coating their cheeks. I smile before going back to walking only to have the shit scared out of me by Alfonse.

"What are you smiling about?" I jump and mumble whisper curses under my breathe. 

"Hasn't our ,other taught you that it's rude to sneak up on people?" I say while I have a hand over my heart trying to steady the rapid beating. Which in turn makes him feel bad for he looks concerned.

"My apologizes, I did not mean to scare you." I wave it off and turn back to him. 

"Is it that obvious?" I ask. He nods and loosens up just a little bit.

"The goofy grin on your face speaks volumes, so tell me what's got you this giddy?" I don't know how he knew that but I decide to indulge him anyway.

"Try not to make it obvious but," I get closer and whisper into his ear. "Anna and Sharena have been getting closer of late." I state to which I watch as he stiffens and looks a bit flush. "Are you alright, or do I need to call Mist over here." He shakes his head profusely. I eye him warily but heed his word either way. Besides we only hopefully have a few more battle left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Four battles later and I can tell that after this is all said and done that I won't have a voice by the end of the day or tomorrow, but finally we made it to the final battle. I turn and look at the recruits and just don't understand how they still look in perfect form. For crying out loud Sharena, Alfonse, and Anna look just a good as any day while everyone else looked like they ran a marathon through a haystack. A sudden booming voice then called out pulling me from my thoughts as we approached a a traditional looking building.

"I'm surprised you made it this far. You've defeated my siblings and some of the best in Hoshido. But now I will stop you here at the cost of my own life, if necessary. I challenge one of you to single combat. How will you fare against the High Prince of Hoshido?" With that he walks with pride into the building with his retainers and two others. I turn to my groups and yell to catch their attention.

"We will do this battle with honor, just as Ryoma want it." I yell so everyone can hear me. They all turn to me and start to listen to what I say. "Alfonse you will will take on Ryoma, Sharena you will get Hinata, Commander you get Oboro, Mathew and Nino I need you to take out the ninjas, Lyn you watch the way we come in and make sure no back up comes, you to Virion, Mist, Niles you stay with me." They all nod and make our way towards the inside. As soon as we step through the door Ryoma was there to greet us. Without a word he turned around and started to walk off, so we followed. I looked around and seen not one of his guards around this whole time which I found suspicious so I grabbed Mathews attention and he told me the where hiding. One behind the pillar we passed, two on the ceiling beams and the last one he isn't sure yet where the last one was. I hummed and went back to my position while trying to think of what they were doing. We all came to a stop in front of a room a shoji, to which Ryoma turned back to us.

"Which one of you will I be fighting." He asked. His voice up close was held way more power in it than it did when it was farther away.

"I will." Alfonse said it a way that shows his authority, with a hard look in his eyes.

"Very well," with that Ryoma opened the door and walked inside. "close the door behind you." Once the door closed all the other recruits popped out and everyone split off to attack them. I grabbed Mist hand and so that we weren't in the cross fire. That's when I seen a dagger flying through the air aimed at Mist. I pulled he into me and turned so that it would hit me, with it imbedding its self into my shoulder.

"Shit." I curse out loud.

"Oh no- are you okay?" Mist starts to look like she was stressing.

"It's fine lets keep moving." We make it behind a pillar and she looks at my shoulder.

"I'm gonna pull it out now, okay?" I nod as I bite my hand so that I don't yell out to loud. "Relax for me." I do the best I can then I feel the searing pain from my shoulder. I groan and try to keep my breathing even. I then hear the jingle of her staff and the glow from it. I feel warmth but the pain hasn't gone away. I hear her make a noise before trying again.

"I-it's not working." She says in frustration. I turn and pat her shoulder.

"It's alright lets just wrap it up for now, alright?" She nods and pulls some gauze out of her boot. " It'll be tight." I nod showing I heard her. After a few minutes of pain, I here the fighting come to a halt so we come from behind the pillar. I see that most of them have weapons aimed at their necks while the ninjas and both still in fighting stance, but not attacking. Just then Alfonse and Ryoma both come out of the room.

"Lower your weapons," Everyone lowers their weapons on both sides. "This battle is over." He turns back to Alfonse before continuing.

"Why do I feel so...reinvigorated? Is it true what you said? We have been under someone's control?" Alfonse nods. "It's all so clear now." He mumbles to himself. "You've saved my kingdom—and rescued me and my retainers. You have my thanks. You also have my apologies for all we put you through, battling on behalf of the true enemy." The exchange a few words as Mist goes around and heal everyone in the room. I check on a few people until Alfonse walks over and places his hand on my hurt shoulder. I flinch just a little and hopped that he wouldn't notice but that was wishful thinking.

"Are you alright?" I nod.

"Yea, just got an injury is all." I respond and I watch as his brows furrowed and looked like he was going to call out to Mist. "She already tried and it didn't work so there is no point in calling her over here." He looked skeptical but let it go. 

"Alright, but as soon as we get back to the castle I'll go with you to the infirmary." I nod and start to gather everyone up so that we can head back. On the way back everyone was chatting, I tuned everyone out for the most part until I heard Anna spoke up, for everyone to hear.

"Excellent work, everyone. We managed to liberate the World of Birthright." To that statement where a few cheers and woots. Before they quieted down to hearing Alfonse speak up.

"I have to admit that I was alarmed when he shouted about going into single combat. Thank goodness we were able to work around that wall. We should avoid any attempts to separate us!" With that most people went about with their conversations again.

"It was terrible, wasn't it? Being split up like that, I thought we might never see each other again!" Her spunk died down as she seemed like she was about to cry. "And...and... And I never EVER want to go through that again. Not like we did with our friend Zacharias." She finished with her voice cracking. Alfonse put his hand on his sister shoulder, catching her attention.

"Agreed, Sister." He then took the off towards the front of the march.

"I've asked you two not to dwell on Zacharias's disappearance. We did the best we could." Anna then called out to them before turning to me. "But I suppose that we owe an explanation to our friend Kiran here. Some time ago, we lost a member of the Order of Heroes whose name was Zacharias. Zacharias was a bold fighter and great comrade. Then one day, he vanished during a battle. We've searched for him, but to no avail. Now, before we sink into despair, let's leave this be for now." She then took off for the front leaving me to watch with an unsure feeling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once we were back to the castle we were greeted by most of the heroes, while others were either in the library or training in the courtyard. Most of the heroes that came along either went to clean themselves up before going to dinner while other went straight to dinner. Alfonse walked over to me before I could walk to far away and lead me to the infirmary. I sat down on the cot on the farthest side of the door and started taking off my jacket and shrug off my shirt in a way that wouldn't hurt my shoulder, but it was inevitable. Just then some medical supplies were set down next to me and a chair pulled up in front of me.

"Let me help you." With that Alfonse helped pull the shirt over my torso and handing it back to me so that I could at least cover up as he started to dress my wound. I tensed up as he was cleaning causing him to apologize to which I waved him off. After I he finished he helped me put my shirt back on before offering to come to dinner with me. I agreed and we both made our way to the door. I stuck my arm out to stop him and pointed to the door.

"Did you leave it open when you came in?" He looked me in my eyes serious.

"No I wouldn't want anyone to see you while you were indecent." We both became lost in thought before deciding that someone was most likely snooping. We talked about meaningless things on our way to the dinning hall.

"I'm thinking of summoning after eating, do you want to come along." A say as I absentmindedly pick at my food.

"Of course, if that's what you wish." He then pauses, which causes me to pause as well. "Where is my sister, I know she would love to greet the new heroes." I hum before looking around the great hall.

"Speaking of which I haven't seen them since we've been back." I then ate some food off of my plate. "Maybe they are just calling it an early night, I mean it can work till tomorrow anyway." He nods and we go our separate ways for the night. After taking a bath, taking special care to not get my bandages wet. I then made my way back to my room, changing clothes, undoing my hair, and blowing out my candle. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was in a dreamless slumber.


	10. Chapter 8: A Day for Recollection

Of course the one time that I finally get a restful night of sleep it's interrupted by me getting tangled in my blankets and just falling face first into the floor. 

"Uggggh." I groan before detangling myself from the blankets and just laying on the floor. The cold cobblestone floor seeping through my sleepwear. Deciding that I won't be getting anymore rest I decide that I might as well get a start on my day. I got dressed and made my way out of room to wander around until it's time to for breakfast. Looking around the halls, since it was still early morning, there are very few guards, maids, or even soldiers out right now. Waving to the very few I see on my way I decide that I was going to sit out in the courtyard til a little after sunrise. The morning dew sparkled off of the grass and the air was just a tad bit cold. I took took a deep breathe before hearing the sound of weapons clashing, I look over to see Lucina and Frederick going at it with Virion and Mathew playing a game of chess, but watching the two train every now and then. I walk over to the two sitting at the table and decide to chat before going off into the garden.

"Good morning Mathew, Virion." I say to them both. Virion is sitting perfectly in his chair, holding an air of elegance about him while Mathew is sitting with his knees up to his chest and his eyes scanning the board. 

"Good morning mademoiselle, good to see a lovely face this early in the morning~" He leans forward, kissing my hand before sitting back. I chuckle nervously before putting my had back in my coat.

"Morning." Mathews response was short and curt, not even glancing up from the board.

"Do either of you know if anyone else is up?" I ask. Virion shrugs, his eyes never leaving me, while Mathew finally moved a piece and looks up at me before answering.

"I believe that Jakob is in the kitchen cooking with some of the castle workers right now, Soren is reading, Anna is in her office, and the royal siblings are in the main part of the castle talking to the King and Queen." I raise my eyebrows, but I don't question why he looked into where everyone was. I nod and smile before I could leave I'm called back by Virion.

"Why don't me and you play a game sometime, Miss Kiran?" 

"Sorry I've never played." I state shaking my head. "Plus your playing partner now is waiting on you." I turn and start walking away when he looks down at the board. Just then I hear him start to gasp at whatever he saw. I make my way over to a bench on the side of the path and just watch as the sun comes up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walking in to the dining hall I see everyone is present. I sit down at my usual table with the siblings and the commander, as I sit down in the seat next to Alfonse I hear a snicker. I look up to see that Anna and Sharena are avoiding my eyes, I raise an eyebrow and glance at Alfonse who seems to be in his head at the moment so I just sit down and thank Jakob for the plate of food he just brought me. We sit in silence for a moment until something came to my mind.

"Hey where were you two yesterday during dinner?" I ask and see Alfonse tune back into the world of the living.

"I was in my office filling out battle reports." Anna says just a little to fast for my liking. 

"M-me? Well I was umm, I was training, yeah out in the courtyard!" She stuttered at the very beginning already made me not believe another word coming out of her mouth.

"Uhuh." Is all I say before going back to eating my breakfast. "Oh!" I of course I decide to remember things slowly at the beginning of the day. "Last night I was going to summon but decided to wait to do it for this morning so that you could be there." She basically starts vibrating from the sheer force of her excitement.

"Well what are we waiting for!!" She shouts causing most heroes to turn and look over from their conversations and meals to see what the commotion is. Seeing the commotion she caused she chuckles nervously while sitting back down and her brother scolding her, telling her to be more quite so that she won't bother others trying to enjoy their meal. I chuckle before taking another bite of my food.

"Well for one we still have to finish breakfast." As soon as the words left my mouth she began scoffing down the rest of her food on her plate before setting them back down on the table. This caused me to be shocked for a second before laughing while her brother just sat there shocked and Anna was quietly chuckling to herself.

"Well have fun, I have some more paperwork to fill out before going to train the new troops." She got up with her tray, waving as she disappeared from the hall.

"Alright now lets go!!" Sharena started to dash out of the hall and towards the summoner stone. Getting up together, Alfonse and I head out after her. Her dashing all around the hall and talking to everyone in sight causes me to chuckle at her energy.

"Wish I had that much energy to start the day." I say as I watch her spin with Nino from down the hall.

"She has always been full of energy like this growing up, whether it was early morning or late in the evening, it was like she never got tired." He had a small smile on his face while he was reminiscing which in turn caused me to smile. I turn back to see that Sharena and Nino were now pretending to ballroom dance around the hall while laughing. During all the merry chaos we finally made it to the summoning stone with one extra person than I expected but wasn't surprised to see exactly.

"Well good to see you once again Mathew." I say with a smile he smiles back and nods. I then turn to the stone before unhooking Breidablik from around my belt. I hear everyone move to the back of the room while I started focusing on the power that is pulsing around the room I take an orb and aim at the stone tree, I take a deep breath in and out before pulling the trigger.

"Hello, I'm Robin. I'm a tactician for the Shepherds, so let me know if you need a battle plan."

"You call Athena? We are warrior, not little child to come running." She stops and looks at me for a moment. "Still, you are nice. We stay."

"I'm Tailtiu! I'm a descendant of the crusader Thrud." She then stops seeing the amount of people in the room. "Well… why don't we forget about that – tell me about you!"

"Umm, sure we can do that once I finish up here if that fine with you?" She nods walking to stand next to the others that Sharena has been chatting up.

"I'm the monk Azama from Hoshido. How odd, being summoned! I'll give you a hand, as long as I'm here." 

"My name is Roderick, a knight in training for Altea. I will do my best to prove my use." That is all the orbs I had for this summoning. After putting the Breidablik back into my belt loop. I turn to see that only Alfonse is the only one still in the room. Seeing me turn around he leans off of the wall and walks over to me. 

"Sharena went ahead and is showing the heroes around ans Mathew left soon after her. I waited o that I will go ahead and report all of the new heroes to her for her upcoming reports." I nod and wave him off.

"You didn't have to wait and it's fine i'll be in the library if you need me." We walk out together before parting ways. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walking into the library is just something I won't be used to how big it was yet, but I will soon enough. Walking in I see Soren surrounded by books on a table, his face hidden by one, Soren with some paper writing down something while looking through a book at a different table. Making my way farther into the library i bumped into someone causing us both to fall over. Lifting my hood up to catch a glance of who I ran into, spotting Robin. All the books he was holding were sprawled out all across the floor.

"I apologize Robin, I should have been watching were I was going." I scramble off the floor and help pick the books back up.

"Not at all, I should have been watching were I was going as well, then we wouldn't have ran into you then." I chuckle while helping him carry them back to a table near one of the side windows and setting them down.

"I don't think that you would have seen much over all these books." I joke causing him to laugh.

"I guess you're right." With that I go back to looking around the shelves of the books on the bottom floor of the library. I walked around on both of the floors for a while just marveling at all of it's knowledge and glory. At some point I picked up a few books on the history of Askr. Though since I read most of the books out of order it didn't make a good timeline for me to base anything off of so then I got some more books on some tactical skills. I then found me a nice secluded window seat and decided to read there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Someone is touching me. I jump up with a start and chunk whatever was in my hand at my assailant. 

"Whoa, hold on don't attack! I just came to get you for dinner." The person had there arms up so I couldn't really see who they were, but better question where am I? After glancing around I realized I'm in a library which was completely dark if it weren't for the candle that the stranger was holding up. Realizing I wasn't attacking anymore they lowered their arms to show me Alfonse. I nearly fell off of the seat in shock.

"OH MY GOSH I'M SO SORRY ALFONSE, I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS YOU, IT'S A REFLEX OF MINE, I'M-" He looks shocked by my outburst and puts his hand on my shoulders which caused me to flinch.

"Calm down, it's okay, nothing you need to stress over." He looks me in the eye and I nod my head before getting up and following Alfonse out of the of the library and to the dinning hall. 

"So what were you reading in the library, if I may ask?" I see him turn his head to look back at me.

"A little bit on the history and some battle tactics." He hums and turns back around.

"If I may ask, how did you find me?" I asked and he chuckled before answering. 

"Well Robin told me that he hadn't seen you leave the library and that he had left after everyone else had for dinner." I hum and he hand off the candle to one of the guards patrolling around the castle and opens the door to the dinning hall. I thank him and walk in taking a seat. As Alfonse sits down I turn my attention to the ruckus going on at the other tables. 

"What has them all riled up?" I ask thanking Jakob for bringing me my food.

"Oh you missed it Kiran, Frederick and Roderick are going to have a battle tomorrow to see who is the best knight!" She starts talking before all her food is even down causing her brother to scold her and Anna to laugh.

"Sounds interesting when is it?" I ask putting some more food into my mouth.

"Tomorrow morning before the sun is up, starts as the sun rises." As nice as that sounded can I even get up that early.

"I would love to watch it but I don't think I could wake up that early though." She is still bouncing in her seat.

"No worries I'll wake you up tomorrow, what about you brother?" She ask looking over to him.

"No I think that I'll pass." He then finishes his food and gets up. We all wish him a good night before all heading our different ways. But of course I just lay there. Staring at the ceiling. Wishing I could sleep. But no, my mind is just racing thinking of how my dumb ass hit the crown prince of Askr. I groan and roll over throwing the blanket over my head and forcing myself to stop thinking until I fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the next chapter will take some time to write because of exams and having to do some research but I'll get it out as soon as I can and why not tell me who you think is going to win the knights battle. ;) Stay safe this Halloween.


End file.
